Mumbai, July 22: Maharashtra's daily COVID-19 cases on Wednesday crossed the 10,000 mark for the first time while the state recorded the second-highest figure of deaths and the Pune Metropolitan region surpassed 2,000 fatalities, health officials said. The state notched a staggering 10,576 new cases, the highest after 9,518 on July 19.

The number of deaths continued to remain in the 200-plus range, at 280 - the second-highest after 295 deaths on July 4. With the fresh fatalities, the death toll went up to 12,556, while the total cases rose to 337,607 - both highest in the country. According to Wednesday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a stupendous 441 new cases every hour.

For the third day running, the recovery rate in the state marginally dropped - from 54.72 percent a day earlier to 54.62 percent on Wednesday, while the mortality rate stood at 3.72 per cent. The Health Department said that of the total cases, 136,980 are active. COVID-19 Pandemic: India Responding With Utmost Urgency From Start, Must Continue to Increase Capacities And Response, Says WHO.

Meanwhile, 5,552 recovered patients returned home on Wednesday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 187,769. On Wednesday, Mumbai recorded 58 deaths, taking up the city toll to 5,875 and the number of cases increased by 1,310 to 104,678.

There were also 57 fatalities in Pune, 50 in Thane, 27 in Aurangabad, 16 in Kolhapur, 12 in Solapur, nine in Jalgaon, seven in Nashik, six in Ahmednagar, five in Palghar, four each in Raigad and Sangli, three each in Ratnagiri, Latur, Nanded, Nagpur and Akola, two each in Satara and Parbhani, and one each in Nandurbar, Jalna, Hingoli, Osmanabad and Buldhana, besides one victim from another state.

In yet another sting operation, social activist Binu Varghese, with the Thane's Crime Branch, helped trap a 5-member gang indulging in blackmarketing of Remdesivir injections for Rs 25,000 per vial, and also recovered other expensive cancer injections and medicines.

The MMR (Thane division) remains on the brink as its current toll increased by 117 to reach 8,519 and a staggering 3,757 new cases took up the number of cases to 209,978. Thane's cases total 79,911 with 2,146 fatalities to make it the worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district continues to race ahead with 63,351 cases so far and the death toll increasing to 1,514 on Wednesday. With 71 more deaths, the Pune division's death toll crossed the 2,000-mark to 2,017 and the case tally touched 72,655.

Nashik division has 961 fatalities and 23,895 cases, Aurangabad division 491 deaths and 13,066 cases, Akola division 204 fatalities and 5,312 cases, Kolhapur division 140 deaths and 5,359 cases, Latur division 142 fatalities and 3,273 cases, and Nagpur division has recorded 45 deaths and 3,781 cases.

As the eight divisions recorded fatalities on Wednesday, Chandrapur still remained the sole zero Covid death district. Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine on Wednesday increased the highest, with 78,445 suspects taking the total to 858,121, while those in institutional quarantine went down to 44,975.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 22, 2020 10:31 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).