With nearly 10,500 COVID-19 cases recorded on Friday, the state is slowly inching towards the 5-lakh mark, even as the total fatalities due to the disease crossed 17,000. Meanwhile, Mumbai's daily count continued to remain below 1,000 cases and the city reported 45 deaths on Friday, second to Pune, which had 52 deaths.

State health department officials said Pune continued to have the highest daily count with 1,946 fresh cases. The other districts that reported a high number of infections include Pimpri-Chinchwad with 905 cases, Nashik with 738 cases and Nagpur with 517 cases. The state's recovery rate increased to 66.76 per cent as 10,906 patients were discharged across Maharashtra. Of them, 1,236 were from Mumbai. About 1.45 lakh patients are currently being treated in the state and with more than 41,000 patients, Pune has the highest number of active cases.

A total of 300 COVID-related deaths were reported in the state on Friday. Apart from Mumbai and Pune, a high number of fatalities was reported in Nashik with 25 deaths. In other districts, 18 deaths were reported in Pimpri-Chinchwad, 19 in Panvel, 15 each in Thane and Nagpur, 14 in Vasai-Virar, nine in Raigad, seven in Solapur, six each in Kalyan-Dombivli, Jalgaon, Satara, Kolhapur and Nanded, five each in Ahmednagar, Latur and Amravati, four each in Navi Mumbai, Bhiwandi and Aurangabad, three each in Mira-Bhayandar, Dhule, Sangli, Ratnagiri and Buldhana, two each in Ulhasnagar and Beed and one each in Malegaon, Osmanabad, Akola, Washim and one person from another state. The mortality rate among COVID-19 patients in the state has dropped marginally to 3.49 per cent. Officials, however, clarified that of the 300 deaths, 229 were from the last 48 hours while the rest happened last week. The recovery rate of the city continues to be 77 per cent and the doubling rate has increased to 85 days. The city's growth rate has dropped to 0.82 per cent and 12 administrative wards have a growth rate higher than the city's average led by R Central ward (1.33 per cent).