Mumbai, For the fourth consecutive day, Covid-19 continued a downward trend in Maharashtra though Raigad notched the highest number of deaths, relegating Mumbai from the top three, while Pune Metropolitan Region overshot Thane in terms of total fatalities, health officials said here on Monday.

The state notched 7,924 new Covid cases, down from the highest tally of 10,576 on July 22, though fresh cases continue to soar in the 7,000-plus range for most days in the second half of July.

The number of deaths in the state continued in the 200-plus range with 227 fatalities on Monday - but still lower than the single day's record of 298 on July 23.

With the fresh fatalities, the state's death toll went up to 13,883, while the total cases rose to 383,723 - both highest in the country.

According to Monday's figures, there was one death roughly every 6 minutes and a stupendous 330 new cases every hour.

The state recovery rate increased for the third day from 56.74 per cent to 57.84 per cent on Monday, while the current mortality rate stood at 3.62 per cent.

The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 147,592 are active.

On the positive side, 8,706 recovered patients returned home on Monday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 221,944.

Of Monday's fatalities, Raigad district notched the highest 47 deaths, followed by 45 in Pune and 40 in Thane, leaving Mumbai trailing behind on the fourth slot - first time since the outbreak of the pandemic.

With 39 deaths, the toll in the country's commercial capital went up to 6,132 and the number of corona cases increased by 1,021 to 110,182.

There were more happy tidings from the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation which announced a recovery rate of 73 per cent and a case doubling rate of 68 days in Mumbai.

Besides, there were eight fatalities recorded in Kolhapur, six in Jalgaon, five each in Nashik and Aurangabad, four in Satara, three each in Palghar, Solapur and Nandurbar, two each in Ahmednagar, Sangli, Latur, Beed, Nanded, Ratnagiri and Nagpur, and one each in Dhule, Hingoli, Osmanabad, and Amravati, as well as one from another state.

The MMR (Thane division) remains on the edge with the current toll increasing by 129 to touch 9,154 and a staggering 3,110 new cases, pushing up the number to 227,376.

Thane's cases have touched 87,790 with 2,386 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state.

Pune district continues to race ahead with 78,130 cases, while the death toll rose to 1,838.

With 53 more deaths, the Pune division - Pune, Solapur and Satara districts - death toll has reached 2,397 - surpassing Thane district's 2,386 toll now - and the case tally touched 89,426.

Nashik division has recorded 1,082 fatalities and 28,751 cases, Aurangabad division 546 deaths and 14,895 cases, Akola division 227 fatalities and 6,419 cases, Kolhapur division 194 deaths and 7,353 cases, Latur division 181 fatalities and 4,278 cases, and Nagpur division 55 deaths and 4,880 cases.

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

Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased to 922,637, while those in institutional quarantine went down to 44,136 on Monday.