Mumbai, June 26 (IANS) Showing no respite, Maharashtra's Covid-19 cases again jumped sharply from Thursday's high of 4,841 to 5,024 on Friday while the state's death toll crossed the 7,000-mark to touch 7,106, health officials said.

The state fatalities again catapulted from the June's lowest of 62 to 175 Friday, down from the previous day's highest death figure of 248 notched on June 23.

Earlier, on June 16, the state had reported the highest 1,409 fatalities taking into account reconciliation of earlier deaths, which drastically escalated the toll.

With Friday's 175 fatalities, the state's death toll climbed from Thursday's 6,931 to 7,106 and total cases zoomed past the 1.5-lakh mark to touch 1,52,765 till date, both being the highest in the country.

This comes to roughly one death recorded every 8 minutes and a staggering 209 new cases notched every hour in the state on Friday.

After 3 days, the recovery rate marginally fell from 52.42 per cent to 52.25 percent, and the mortality (death) rate stood at 4.65 per cent.

For most days in June, the state has been recording three-digit highs of deaths and since past few days 4,000 plus figures of new patients, causing huge concerns.

The health department said of the total number of cases declared till date, 65,829 are ‘active cases' (ill) today - and this number is lower (favourable) vis-A-vis the number of patients cured, indicating a positive sign.

Of the total 175 fatalities declared Friday, Mumbai alone notched 117 deaths – raising the city's death toll from 4,062 to 4,179 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,297 cases to touch 72,175.

Besides Mumbai's 117 deaths, there were 16 in Pune, 15 in Aurangabad, 11 in Nashik, 6 in Thane, 2 each in Akola, Latur and Nanded, and 1 death each in Kolhapur, Nandurbar, Gondiya and Nagpur.

On the positive side, a total of 2,362 fully cured patients - the second highest till date - returned home, taking the number of those discharged to 79,815 now - relatively higher than the 65,829 active cases currently.

With Thane catapulting to the second slot in the country after Mumbai, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting with the top district officials to discuss ways and means to control the Covid-19 situation there.

The state government has launched a health app – eSanjeevaniOPD - to give free online advice to patients for various illnesses as many private hospitals are shut due to the Covid-19 pandemic, said Health Minister Rajesh Tope.

Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh visited Malad East suburb after the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation this week announced a series of measures to control the runaway infections in north Mumbai suburbs.

Singh took an overview of the manner in which a strict lockdown is being enforced in the worst-hit north eastern and northwestern suburbs after the Covid-19 was tamed in Dharavi.

The MMR (Thane Division) remains a jittery issue with a total of 5,188 Covid-19 deaths, and the number of positive cases touching 110,830 Friday.

Thane - with 30,871 cases and 816 fatalities - has emerged as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district comes third with 19,031 patients and 675 deaths till now. But Pune Division ranks second (after MMR) with 22,446 patients and 953 deaths.

The next major region of concern is Nashik Division with 475 fatalities and 7,359 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 243 deaths and 5,130 cases, and finally Akola Division with 121 fatalities and 2,422 cases.

Kolhapur Division has notched 47 deaths and 1,839 patients, Latur Division had 39 deaths and 861 cases, and finally Nagpur Division recorded 17 deaths and 1,755 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from 556,428 to 558,488 Friday, while those in institutional quarantine increased from 33,952 to 36,903.

--IANS qn/kr