Maharashtra recorded its highest single-day Covid-19 death toll at 27, the biggest jump in casualties since 25 people succumbed to the dreaded virus on April 9, health officials said here on Monday.

The state also recorded a significant number of 522 new cases on Monday, taking the total number of infected persons to 8,590.

With the large number of casualties, the state's death toll touched 369 on Monday, up from 342 on Sunday.

Since the past one week, the state has also seen a significantly high number of new patients. Twice last week, the state notched single-day high figures of 552 new cases, zooming to 778 on Thursday, and then catapulted to a new record of 811 on Saturday, and a high of 522 on Monday, creating huge concerns among the health authorities.

Of the total 27 deaths on Monday, 15 were recorded in Mumbai, taking the city's death toll from 204 to 219, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients in the city shot up from Sunday's 5,407 to 5,776, an increase of 369 cases, though the BMC said the hike was 395 new cases.

With Dharavi recording 288 cases and 14 deaths till date, the BMC said it has upped the number of institutional quarantine facilities by adding a 1200-bed Dedicated Corona Health Centre (DCHC) at the NESCO ground in Goregaon, which also has 1,000 beds with oxygen, courtesy the Romel Group and the MCHI-CREDAI.

Pune recorded four new casualties, besides six in Amravati, and one each in Aurangabad and Jalgaon.

Among the casualties on Monday, there were 15 men and 12 women, and nearly 81 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 claimed a third Mumbai policeman in the past three days after a 56-year old head constable of Kurla Traffic Division died of the disease.

Spelling glad tidings, Minister for Medical Education, Amit Vilasrao Deshmukh, announced that all Covid-19 patients shall be treated free of cost at the government and civic hospitals, which would include free testing, meals and treatment.

Additionally, Deshmukh said that the number of test centres in the state would be increased from the existing 40 to 60 soon, both in the public and private sector.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division) continued to cause big worries with 238 Covid-19 deaths and 6,735 patients.

The Pune Division follows at a distant second slot with 87 casualties and 1,193 patients.

The next area of concern is Nashik Division with 23 deaths and 244 positive cases, followed by Akola Division with 9 casualties and 135 patients, overtaking Nagpur's 131 patients and one casualty.

On the positive side, 94 fully cured patients returned to their homes on Monday, taking the number of those discharged to 1,282.

Meanwhile, the number of people in home quarantine shot up from Sunday's 136,926 to 145,677 on Monday and those in institutional quarantine increased from 9,160 to 9,399. The state's containment zones came down from 604 on Sunday to 572 on Monday.

As many as 7,861 surveillance squads have been fanned out to survey a population of nearly 3.22 million around the state.

IANS