The Maharashtra Government on Sunday extended the near lockdown-like restrictions in the state till June 15, even as the infections in the state came down to down 18,600 and the daily deaths dropped marginally to 814.

Announcing the extension of the lockdown restrictions in the State from 7 am June 1 to 7 am on June 15, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said during his interaction with the people across the State through social media: “There can be no other hard decision than to impose hard decision than to impose lockdown restrictions on people. With no other alternative, I am doing it. I am doing this to protect the lives of the people in the State”.

“On May 26, there were 24,752 infections, today infections have come down to 18,600.  The recovery rate has gone up to 92 per cent. We are extending the lockdown but are not making the restrictions stringent. It is a matter of concern that the infections are increasing in some districts. The infections are coming down in cities, but they are increasing in rural areas. We need to bring down the increasing infections in rural areas,” the Chief Minister said.

Citing the examples of Hirve Bazar and another village in Solapur district in western Maharashtra which have become Covid 19-free villages, the chief minister said that the sarpanchs across the state should emulate the examples of these two villages and arrest the spread of the pandemic in their villages.

Announcing the concept of “My Doctor” and exhorting the people to involve their family doctors in protecting their families from the Covid-19, Uddhav said that the Covid-19 virus was no longer the same one that had been witnessed last year and it was getting mutated in a big way posing am major challenge to the doctors fighting the virus.

“Till all the people in the state are administered two doses, the situation will continue.  With the third wave having become a possibility, there is an apprehension that children might get affected. Keeping this in mind, I will lay emphasis on interactions with doctors on how to protect children from getting infected,” Uddhav said.

Meanwhile, a day afte the state logged 20,295 infections and 832 deaths, the infections dropped to 18,600, while the daily deaths dropped to 814 – which comprised 402 current fatalities and 412 previous unaccounted deaths.

With 814 deaths reported on Saturday, the total number of deaths in the state climbed from 94,030 to 94,844. Similarly, with 18,600 new infections, the total number of cases climbed from 57,13,215 to 57,31,815.

As 22,532  patients were discharged from the hospitals across the state after full recovery, the total number of people discharged from the hospitals since the second week of March last year increased from 53,39,838 to 53,62,370. The recovery rate in the State rose from 93.46 per cent to 93.55 per cent.

The total “active cases” in the state increased marginally from 2,76,573 to 2,71,801. The fatality rate in the State stood static at 1.65 per cent

With 22 fresh deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai increased from  14,775 to 14,797, while the infected cases went up to 1,062  on Saturday  to trigger a jump in the infections from 7,03,560 to 7,04,622.

The situation in Pune improved further, as the “active cases” dropped from   40,754 to 39,466. Mumbai with 28,015 active cases stood second in the state, followed by Thane (19,306), Satara (21625), Kolhapur ( 17,862), Sangli (14220), Nagpur (12,296), Ahmednagar (11,500), Solapur (10,090), Nashik (9813), Beed (7497), Jalgaon (6486),  Amaravati (5964) and Aurangabad (4254).

Of the 3,48,61,608 samples sent to various laboratories across the State so far, 57,31,815 have tested positive (16.44 per cent) for Covid-19 until Sunday.

Currently, 19,98,976 people are in home quarantine while 12,981 people are in institutional quarantine.