Mumbai, March 17 (IANS): Mumbai's famed Juhu Beach wore a deserted look since the weekend as Mumbai Police prevented entry of people in view of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country which has hit Maharashtra most severely. Similarly, entry has been banned at all prominent Mumbai beaches such as Chowpatty, Dadar, Bandra Bandstand, Versova, Madh, Gorai etc.

The scourge of coronavirus continued unabated in Maharashtra with one death and one new case detected each in Mumbai, Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, taking the total positive cases to 41, even as the state government opted against a near-total lockdown on Tuesday.

"There are a total of 26 males and 15 women admitted to various hospitals around the state. The condition of all the patients is stable and they are responding to the treatment," Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray informed mediapersons.

Mumbai exhaled a collective sigh of relief as the Chief Minister said that he had decided against suspending the suburban local trains and bus services for the time being.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 claimed its first victim in Maharashtra on Tuesday when a 63-year old man with a history of travel to Dubai, succumbed at around 7 a.m., almost a week after he tested positive, at the Kasturba Hospital here.

An official statement said that he had not revealed his travel history when he was initially admitted to a private hospital for five days before being shifted to the Kasturba Hospital, where he passed away in quarantine on Tuesday.