Mumbai, Jan 29 (IANS): For the first time in nearly five months, Maharashtra recorded a massive spike in Covid-19 deaths and Omicron cases crossed the 3,000-mark, though infections continued to fall and Omicron seemed under control, officials said here on Friday.

The state on Friday notched 103 deaths -- after the previous high of 183 on September 1, during the second wave -- and marking a new peak in the ongoing third wave.

With the fatalities shooting up to more than double from 42 on Thursday to 103 on Friday, the mortality rate remained stable at 1.86 per cent.

After the peak of 416 Omicron cases (January 22) the state recorded 110 infections of the variant today, compared with 72 on Thursday, taking up the total from 2,930 to 3,040 on Friday.

Omicron has now spread extensively across several districts in the state, and out of the 3,040 cases till date, 1,603 have recovered, with 6,605 positive samples sent for testing from which 187 results are awaited.

The number of people sent to home quarantine declined sharply -- dropping from 15,31,108 on Thursday to 14,61,370 now, and another 3,200 have been shunted to institutional quarantine.

Pune, Nagpur, Thane, Nashik, and Mumbai remain at the top with the highest number of 'active cases' currently in the state, but the afflictions went down from 287,397 a day before to 266,586 on Friday, and the recovery rate improving from 94.32 per cent to 94.61 per cent.

The state's cumulative figures of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 now stands at 76,55,554 cases and 142,461 deaths, while a total of 72,42,649 patients have fully recovered till Friday.