The state notched 7,717 new Covid cases, the lowest in a fortnight and down from the highest tally of 10,576 on July 22, though fresh cases continue to soar in the 7,000-plus levels in the second half of July.

 

The number of deaths continued in the 200-plus range with 282 fatalities on Tuesday - but still lower than the single highest toll of 298 on July 23.

 

With the fresh fatalities, the death toll went up to 14,165, while the total cases rose to 391,440 - both highest in the country.

 

According to Tuesday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a staggering 322 new cases every hour.

 

The state recovery rate increased for the third day, jumping from 57.84 per cent to 59.34 per cent on Tuesday, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.62 per cent.

 

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 144,694 are active.

 

On the positive side, 10,333 recovered patients returned home on Tuesday - the highest till date - taking the total number of discharged patients to 232,277.

 

Of the nw fatalities, Mumbai again reigned with the highest 55 deaths, taking the toll in the country's commercial capital up to 6,187 and the number of corona cases increased by 700 - the lowest ever in three months - to touch 110,882 now.

 

Spelling glad tidings with the current status, a pleased Health Minister Rajesh Tope has claimed that Maharashtra has achieved the Covid peak now and the cases will start declining from August 15 onwards.

 

Tourism Minister Aditya Thackeray heartily patted the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the lowest 700 new cases in Mumbai in the past three months while notching the highest testing of 8,776 on Tuesday.

 

Though terming it as "a major relief", he also warned people not to "let your mask down", but help get the numbers down instead.

 

There were also 47 deaths in Pune, 45 in Thane, 25 in Solapur, 19 in Raigad, 18 in Nagpur, 13 in Jalgaon, 11 in Nashik, eight in Satara, six each in Kolhapur and Aurangabad, five each in Sangli and Latur, four in Osmanabad, three in Ahmednagar, two each in Palghar and Amravati, and one each in Dhule, Nandurbar, Sindhudurg, Jalna, Parbhani, Akola, Yavatmal and Buldhana.

 

The MMR (Thane division) remains on the edge with the current toll increasing by 121 to touch 9,275 and a staggering 2,223 new cases, pushing up the number to 229,599 now.

 

Thane has 88,859 cases with 2,431 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

 

Pune district continues to race ahead by notching 80,325 cases, with the death toll increasing to 1,885 on Tuesday.

 

With 47 more deaths, the Pune division death toll has reached 2,477 and the case tally 91,977.

 

Nashik division has recorded 1,111 fatalities and 29,987 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 554 deaths and 15,637 cases, Akola division with 232 fatalities and 6,644 cases, Kolhapur division with 206 deaths and 7,675 cases, Latur division with 190 fatalities and 4,433 cases, and Nagpur division 73 deaths and 5,136 cases.

 

Continuing the trend for the second week, all the eight divisions recorded fatalities on Tuesday, while Chandrapur still remains a zero Covid death district.

 

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine decreased sharply to 885,545 now, while those in institutional quarantine went down to 42,733.