The state government will continue the lockdown in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune and other Covid-19 hotspots like Solapur, Aurangabad and Malegaon till May 31. In other areas of the state, it will implement the guidelines that the Centre will issue in the next two days.Meanwhile, areas under the BMC registered a whopping 998 fresh cases on Thursday, followed by 70 cases in Thane, 64 in Navi Mumbai, 21 in Mira Bhayander and 6 in Kalyan-Dombivali. MMR witnessed 46 deaths on the same day.New municipal commissioner IS Chahal, who is also the disaster management chief, told Mirror, “I want the lockdown in Mumbai to continue beyond May 18, otherwise the BMC’s efforts will go waste.’’ The decision to extend the lockdown was taken on Thursday morning in a meeting attended by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, urban development minister Eknath Shinde, PWD minister Ashok Chavan and chief secretary Ajoy Mehta at the mayor’s bungalow.

The state government will continue the lockdown in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), Pune and other Covid-19 hotspots like Solapur, Aurangabad and Malegaon till May 31. In other areas of the state, it will implement the guidelines that the Centre will issue in the next two days.Meanwhile, areas under the BMC registered a whopping 998 fresh cases on Thursday, followed by 70 cases in Thane, 64 in Navi Mumbai, 21 in Mira Bhayander and 6 in Kalyan-Dombivali. MMR witnessed 46 deaths on the same day.New municipal commissioner IS Chahal, who is also the disaster management chief, told Mirror, “I want the lockdown in Mumbai to continue beyond May 18, otherwise the BMC’s efforts will go waste.’’ The decision to extend the lockdown was taken on Thursday morning in a meeting attended by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, revenue minister Balasaheb Thorat, urban development minister Eknath Shinde, PWD minister Ashok Chavan and chief secretary Ajoy Mehta at the mayor’s bungalow.