Mumbai, May 17 (IANS): Maharashtra's Covid-19 new infections plummeted sharply to drop below the 30,000 level first time in nearly two months, but the state death toll crossed the 82,000 mark, health officials said on Monday.

Compared with 974 deaths on Sunday, fatalities nosedived to 516, taking the toll to to 82,486 now.

Dropping below the 30,000 level the first time since March 23 - when 28,699 infections were notched, the daily cases dropped from 34,389 on Sunday to 26,616 now, taking the state tally above the 54 lakh mark to 54,05,068.

The Mumbai situation continued to improve, with infections remaining below the 3,000 level, at 1,232, while the city tally increased to 689,062. Deaths dropped to 48 on Monday, taking the total fatalities in the country's commercial capital to 14,272 now.

After four days, the state death rate rose from 1.52 per cent to 1.53 per cent now, while the number of active cases fell to 445,495 now.

A total of 48,211 fully cured patients -- again higher than the number of fresh infections -- returned home, taking the total up to 48,74,582, while the recovery rate further improved from 89.74 per cent to 90.19 per cent.

The Mumbai circle - comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts - recorded a corresponding fall in new cases to 4,007 now, taking its tally to 14,87,830, while with 118 more deaths, the toll reached 26,024.

Of the day's total fatalities, Kolhapur led with 101 deaths, while there were 56 in Solapur, 48 in Mumbai, 43 in Chandrapur, 36 in Beed, 27 in Palghar, 25 in Thane, 19 in Parbhani, 18 in Raigad, 16 in Nashik, 15 each in Ahmednagar and Sangli, 14 in Pune, 13 each in Jalgaon and Sindhudurg, 12 in Latur, eight in Yavatmal, six each in Satara and Washim, five each in Nanded and Nagpur, four each in Jalna and Akola, two each in Osmanabad, Wardha, and Gondia, and one in Buldhana.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation stood at 33,74,258, while those in institutional quarantine was at 28,102.