Mumbai, July 24 : After two days of record high Covid deaths and cases, Maharashtra notched a decline on both fronts, though the situation continued to remain grim on Friday, health officials said. The state notched its third highest 9,615 new Covid cases, down from the highest 10,576 (July 22), as fresh cases continued to soar in the 8K-plus range in the second-half of July. The number of deaths in the state continued to remain in the 200-plus range with 278 notched on Friday - lower than the peak single day's record toll of 298 recorded on July 23. With the fresh fatalities, the state's death toll went up from 12,854 a day earlier to 13,132 now, while the total cases touched 357,117 - both highest in the country. According to Friday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a stupendous 401 new cases every hour added to the state tally. The state recovery rate increased for the second day from 55.09 per cent to 55.99 on Friday, while the current mortality (death) rate stood at 3.68 per cent. The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 143,714 are 'active cases' (ill) and that this number is lower (favourable) vis-a-vis the number of patients cured and discharged, indicating a positive sign, said the health officials. On the positive side, 5,714 recovered patients returned home on Friday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 199,967 - considerably higher than the 143,714 'active cases' currently in the state. Mumbai district was pushed to the third position in terms of the fatalities recorded today with Pune and Thane overtaking in the count. Of the total 278 fatalities, Pune again notched the highest 74 deaths, followed by Thane's 56 deaths. Mumbai recorded 54 deaths, taking up the toll in the country's commercial capital from 5,930 to 5,984 and the number of corona cases increased by 1,057 to touch 106,980. Besides, Pune's 74, Thane's 56 and Mumbai's 54 deaths, there were 14 fatalities in Raigad, 11 in Nashik, 10 in Jalgaon, 9 in Solapur, 7 in Kolhapur, 6 in Palghar, 5 in Aurangabad, 4 in Nanded, 3 each in Ahmednagar, Jalna, Parbhani, Osmanabad and Satara, 2 each in Ratnagiri, Latur, Beed and Nagpur, 1 each in Dhule, Nandurbar, Hingoli and Yavatmal, besides 1 from another state. The MMR (Thane Division) remains on the brink as deaths spiral and cases pile up, with the current toll increasing by 130 for the second day running to reach 8,779 and a staggering 3,367 new cases, pushing up the number to touch 217,317. Thane cases have touched 83,189 with 2,249 fatalities to emerge as the second worst-hit district after Mumbai in the state. Pune district continues to zoom ahead by notching 69,919 cases, with the death toll increasing from 1,592 a day earlier to 1,666 on Friday. With 74 more deaths, the Pune Division's (comprising Pune, Solapur and Satara districts) death toll crossed has reached 2,185 and the case tally touched 80,032 - but remains behind MMR and Thane district. The next major region of concern is Nashik Division which crossed the 1K-mark of deaths, recording 1,018 fatalities and 25,838 cases, followed by Aurangabad Division notching 521 deaths and 13,775 cases, and Akola Division recording 210 fatalities and 5,887 cases. All the eight divisions recorded fatalities on Friday, while Chandrapur (out of total 36) remains a 'zero-Covid-death district' till date, though each division and district in the state notched fresh cases. Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home-quarantine increased from 874,267 to 888,976 now, while those in institutional quarantine went up from 45,222 to 45,838 on Friday. /IANS