On Thursday when the State logged 771 more Covid 19-triggered deaths and 66,159 infections, the Maharashtra Government extended the near lockdown-like restrictions in the state till May 15, in an effort to break the chain of transmission of virus.

The restrictions, which were to end in the normal course at 7 am on May 1, will continue till 7 am on May 15.

In its order extending the restrictions till May 15, the Maharashtra Government said that since the State continued to face the threat of the spread of Covid-19 virus, “it is imperative to continue emergency measures to prevent and contain the spread of virus”.

Meanwhile, a day the pandemic claimed 1,035 lives and left 66,536 others infected, the state recorded 771 deaths and  66,159 infections.

With fresh fatalities and infections, the total deaths in the state climbed from  67,214 to 67,985, while  the total number of cases rose from 44,73,394 to 45,39,553.

As 68,537 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 went up to

37,99,266. The recovery rate in the state for the first time in several days rose from 83.4 per cent to 83.69 per cent.

The total “active cases” in the state dropped from 6,73,481 to 6,70,301. The fatality rate in theState stood static at 1.50 per cent. With 82 fresh deaths, the Covid-19 toll in Mumbai rose from  12954 to 13036, while the infected cases went up by 4174 to trigger a jump in the infections from  6,40,409 to 6,44,683.

Of the 2,68,16,075 samples sent to laboratories, 45,39,553 have tested positive (16.86 per cent) for Covid-19 until Thursday.

While Pune accounted for a maximum 1,04,529 “active cases” in the state, Nagpur stood second 80,028 followed by Mumbai with 67,255, Thane (56,973), Nashik (52,954), Chandrapur (26,613), Ahmednagar (23,124), Beed (19,788), Satara (17,479),  Solapur (16,666), Aurangabad (14,649), Jalgaon (13393),   Latur (12526), Bhandara (11,309), Parbhani (10,059).Nanded (9360), Nandurbar (7377) and  Gondia (7311).

Currently, 41,19,759 people are in home quarantine while 30,118 people are in institutional quarantine.