Mumbai, Maharashtra on Thursday reported 85 Covid-19 deaths, down by 20 over yesterday's high of 105 fatalities, while the number of cases in Mumbai shot past the 35K mark, health officials said.

It includes 49 deaths in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone -- the worst-hit region in the country -- besides 2,598 new positive cases recorded across the state today.

This comes to roughly one death every 17 minutes, and an average 108 new cases every hour, in the state.

Maharashtra has been recording 75-plus fatalities and new patients over 2K daily for the past three days consecutively, with the last highest figure of infections being 3,041 cases on May 24.

With 85 fatalities, the state death toll reached 1,982 and the total number of coronavirus patients increased from 56,948 yesterday to 59,546 today.

The health department said of the total number of cases declared to date, 38,939 were 'active cases' -- swelling by 1,814 over yesterday's 37,125.

The state has reported a recovery rate of 31.26 per cent and a mortality (death) rate of 3.32 per cent.

Of the total 85 fatalities today, 38 were recorded in Mumbai alone, taking the city deaths up from yesterday's 1,097 to 1,135 now, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients here shot up by 1,467 cases to touch 35,485 today.

Mumbai's congested Dharavi slum continued to be a major red-hotspot with 36 new cases today, taking the total number of infectees to 1,675 while the figure of deaths remained unchanged at 61.

Besides Mumbai's 38 deaths, there were 10 fatalities in Pune, 9 in Satara, 7 in Solapur, 6 in Thane (Thane City, Navi Mumbai), 5 in Akola, 4 in Palghar (Vasai-Virar), 3 in Aurangabad, and one each in Raigad, Jalgaon, and Nanded.

The victims comprised 60 men and 25 women, and nearly 53 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

On the positive side, 698 fully cured patients returned home today, taking the number of those discharged to 18,616.

Maharashtra Police recorded one more death of a policeman, taking the total toll to 22, including 14 in Mumbai and the number of infectees increased by 131 to touch 2,095, comprising 236 officers and 1,859 personnel.

The Rapid Action Force (RAF) has now been deployed in Mumbra town in Thane district and along with the local police, it carried out a flag march before getting down to implement lockdown.

The MMRA continued to cause grave concerns with 1,339 Covid-19 deaths and positive cases shooting to 45,474.

Though trailing a distant second after Mumbai, Pune Division fatalities touched 376, besides 8,036 patients.

The next major area of concern is Nashik Division with 122 deaths and 1,822 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 61 fatalities and 1,640 cases, and finally Akola Division with 45 deaths and 905 cases.

The Latur Division reported 9 deaths and 310 cases, Kolhapur Division 7 deaths and 675 patients, and Nagpur Division, 10 deaths and 630 cases.

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from 582,701 to 612,745 today -- a jump of 30,044 -- and those in institutional quarantine came down by 2,639 to 35,122.

The state's containment zones increased 2,684 yesterday to 2,186 on Thursday and 17,211 health teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 65.6 lakh in the state.