Mumbai, Aug 8 : Maharashtra's Covid deaths crossed the 17,000 mark with 300 fatalities on Friday while the state recorded 10,483 more cases, down from the peak of 11,514 on Thursday, health officials said. With the new deaths, the state death toll rose to 17,092, while the total number of cases reached 490,262 - both highest in the country. According to Friday's figures, there was one death roughly every 5 minutes and a staggering 437 new cases every hour. The state recovery rate went up from 65.94 per cent to 66.76 per cent on Friday, while the mortality rate stood at 3.49 per cent. The Health Department said that of the total cases till date, 145,582 are active. On Friday, 10,906 recovered patients returned home, taking the total number of discharged patients to 327,281. Of the Friday's fatalities, Pune again notched the highest deaths, at 70, followed by Mumbai's 45, and Thane's 34 deaths. Mumbai deaths, which again dropped below the 50-plus range, now stand at 6,693 and the number of cases increased by 862 to 121,012 now. Besides, there were 28 deaths in Raigad, 26 in Nashik, 15 in Nagpur, 14 in Palghar, seven in Solapur, six each in Satara, Kolhapur, Nanded and Jalgaon, five each in Ahmednagar, Latur, and Amravati, four in Aurangabad, three each in Dhule, Sangli, Ratnagiri, and Washim, two in Beed, one each in Osmanabad, and Akola, besides one from another state. The MMR's toll shot up by 121 to 10,492 and fresh 2,597 new cases pushed up the number to 259,875. Pune district cases now stand at 107,204, with the death toll at 2,566, while Thane district now had 101,977 cases with 2,913 fatalities. With 83 more fatalities, the Pune division's death toll has reached 3,292 and the case tally zoomed up with 3,374 new cases to 123,306. Nashik division has recorded 1,380 fatalities and 44,527 cases, followed by Aurangabad division with 660 deaths and 19,441 cases, Kolhapur division with 384 fatalities and 14,503 cases, Latur division with 322 fatalities and 9,171 cases, Akola division with 309 fatalities and 9,358 cases, and Nagpur division with 199 deaths and 9,597 cases. Of the total eight divisions, only Latur, Akola and Nagpur remain in the sub-10,000 cases bracket, though the numbers of new infectees continue to mount steadily. Meanwhile, the number of people sent to home quarantine increased to 982,075, while those in institutional quarantine decreased to 35,262. /IANS