Mumbai, Jun 12 (IANS): For the third time this week, Maharashtras daily Covid deaths remained in the higher ranges, as the fatalities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) crossed the 30,000-mark though new infections dropped, health officials said here on Saturday.

Compared to the peak of 2,619 deaths declared on Friday, the state on Saturday reported its second highest toll of 1,966 fatalities, comprising 360 new deaths and 1,606 earlier deaths, which mounted Maharashtra's overall death toll to 108,333, the worst in the country for a single state.

The number of fresh cases continued to remain below the 15,000-level at 10,697 on Saturday, taking the state's tally to 58,98,550 till date.

In Mumbai, for the 16th consecutive day, new infections remained below the 1,000-level, but increased from 721 on Friday to 749 on Saturday, taking its overall tally to 714,965.

The daily deaths decreased from 24 a day earlier to 18 on Saturday, mounting the total fatalities in the country's commercial capital to 15,097.

The state's death rate improved, from 1.81 per cent a day before to 1.84 per cent now, while the number of active cases remained below the 2-lakh mark at 155,474.

On the brighter side, as many as 14,910 fully cured persons returned home -- higher than the number of fresh infections -- taking the state's total number of recoveries to 56,31,767, with a recovery rate of 95.48 per cent.

The Mumbai Circle, comprising Mumbai, Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts, reported 2,267 new cases, compared to the peak of 19,953 recorded on April 11.

The MMR's overall caseload has gone up to 15,61,266, while 84 more deaths mounted its death toll to 30,236, in view of the reconciliation of previous fatalities.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home isolation came below the 10-lakh mark for the first time after March 21 at 963,227, while those shunted to institutional quarantine went down from 6,024 a day before to 5,807 on Saturday.