Mumbai, Aug 20 (IANS): Maharashtra recorded the highest Covid-19 new cases for the second consecutive day on Thursday, with the death toll soaring above the 300-mark, health officials said.

The state recorded a new high of 14,492 cases - up from the previous peak of 13,165 (August 19) - pushing up the total from 628,642 to 643,289 now, and with 326 more fatalities, the state death toll shot up to 21,359 - both highest in the country.

There was one death roughly every four minutes and a staggering 604 new cases added every hour to the state tally on Thursday.

The state recovery rate improved from 71.09 per cent to 71.37 per cent, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 3.32 per cent on Thursday.

12,243 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 459,124 till date - considerably higher than the 162,491 'active cases' currently in the state.

Of the total 326 fatalities, Pune again topped the list with 95 deaths, followed by 46 in Mumbai for the second day, 25 in Thane, 22 in Kolhapur and 21 in Nagpur.

20 deaths were recorded in Jalgaon, 17 in Ahmednagar, 15 in Sangli, 10 in Nashik.

On the lower side, there were nine fatalities in Satara, six each in Palghar and Raigad, five in Ratnagiri, four each in Dhule, Aurangabad, Parbhani, Osmanabad and Akola, three in Solapur, two in Latur, one each in Nandurbar, Washim, Gondiya and Chandrapur.

With 46 fatalities Mumbai's toll increased from 7,268 to 7,314 and the number of corona cases increased by 1,275 to touch 132,822 now.

The country's commercial capital has a case doubling rate of 90 days with a 0.78 percent infection rate and 80 per cent recovery rate.

Of the total 8 Circles, the MMR (Thane circle, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad) remains on the edge as deaths spiral as cases pile up, with fatalities shooting up by 83 to touch 11,968 deaths and 3,659 new cases pushed up the total infectees to 299,165.

Pune district recorded 141,056 cases with the fatalities increasing from 3,422 a day earlier to 3,517, while Thane district on the third spot (after Pune and Mumbai) witnessed 118,776 cases with the death toll increasing from 3,442 the previous day to 3,467 now.

With 107 more fatalities, the Pune circle (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll touched 4,445 and the case tally zoomed up with the highest-ever 4,133 new cases to reach 165,434.

Nashik circle has recorded 1,855 fatalities and 71,370 cases, followed by Kolhapur circle's 822 deaths and 27,495 cases, and Aurangabad circle with 782 fatalities and 26,611 cases.

Next is Latur circle with 538 fatalities and 18,341 cases, Nagpur circle with 489 deaths and 20,613 cases, followed by Akola division's 397 fatalities and 13,672 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of patients sent to home-quarantine increased from 11,62,450 to 11,76,261 now, while those in institutional quarantine went up from 37,094 to 37,639 on Thursday.