Mumbai, Apr 24 (IANS): After three consecutive days of high fatalities, Maharashtra's Covid-19 death toll fell on Saturday even as the state's case tally zoomed past the 42 lakh-mark, with an increase in the number of active cases, health officials said.

A day after reporting a record 773 deaths, the state's fatalities fell to its second highest peak of 676 on Saturday, taking its overall toll to 63,928, the worst in the country.

Dropping a little from the record high of 68,631 new cases recorded on April 18, the state on Saturday reported a single-day tally of 67,160 fresh infections, taking its overall figures past the 42 lakh-mark to 42,28,836.

The situation in Mumbai improved considerably with a drop in new infections from 7,199 on Friday to 5,867 on Saturday, taking its Covid tally to 6,22,146 till date, 20 days after touching the highest daily spike of 11,206 cases on April 4.

The city also reported 71 fatalities on Saturday, which took its overall death toll to 12,726, the highest for a single city in the country.

The state's death rate dropped marginally from 1.52 per cent a day earlier to 1.51 per cent now, while the number of active cases increased again from 691,851 on Friday to 694,480 on Saturday.

On a brighter note, 63,818 fully cured persons returned home on Saturday, taking the state's total number of recoveries to 34,68,610 now, with a recovery rate of 82.02 per cent.

The Mumbai Circle -- comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts -- recorded a fall in new cases from 16,968 on Friday to 15,106 on Saturday, taking up its tally past the 13 lakh-mark to 13,01,603, while 117 deaths mounted its death toll to 22,481.

Of the day's 676 fatalities, Mumbai led the chart with 71 deaths, followed by 61 in Nanded, 57 in Nagpur, 48 in Solapur, 35 in Nashik, 30 in Ahmednagar, 29 in Latur, 28 in Beed, 25 each in Ratnagiri, Yavatmal and Bhandara, 23 each in Pune and Satara, 22 each in Thane and Gadchiroli, 20 each in Raigad and Wardha, 16 in Amravati, 13 in Chandrapur, 12 in Osmanabad and 11 in Hingoli -- in the higher range.

There were 8 deaths each in Nandurbar and Sindhudurg, 7 each in Kolhapur, Jalna and Gondia, 6 in Jalgaon, 5 each in Sangli and Parbhani, 4 in Palghar and 3 in Dhule -- in the lower range. Three out of the 36 districts in the state recorded zero fatalities on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation decreased marginally -- from 41,88,266 a day before to 41,87,675 now -- while those shunted to institutional quarantine also dropped from 29,378 on Friday to 29,246 on Saturday.