Mumbai, Feb 26 (IANS): After 27 days, Maharashtra added a thousand Covid fatalities - from 51K on Jan. 29 to 52K-plus, on Friday, even as the number of new cases continued to soar, health officials said.

With 48 fatalities in the past 24 hours, the state death toll shot up from 51,993 to 52,041 and with 8,333 new cases, the total infections recorded till date has increased from 21,29,821 to 21,38,134 - both highest in the country.

Although the recovery rate stands at a 94.35 percent, the death rate is now 2.43 percent, with fatalities reported from 18 of the state's 36 districts during the day.

Of these, the highest - 14 deaths - were recorded in Akola Circle, 9 from Pune Circle, 7 in Nashik Circle, and 6 each from Mumbai Circle and Nagpur Circle, 3 in Latur Circle and 2 from Kolhapur Circle.

Maharashtra currently has 67,608 'active cases', besides 318,707 people in isolation and another 2,688 in institutional quarantine.

With new cases and fatalities showing a significant rise in February, the state government has been darkly hinting at another lockdown, though stringent restrictions of various kinds have already been clamped in several cities, towns and districts.