Mumbai, May 5 (IANS): Maharashtra recorded 34 new Covid-19 deaths - the third highest toll after 36 on May 2 - and positive cases continued to rise, crossing the 15,000 mark, and forcing the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to shut down all liquor shops, health officials said here on Tuesday.

With 34 fatalities, the state death toll shot up to 617 and the total number of Coronavirus patients increased by 841 to 15,525.

With no respite in new cases and casualties, BMC Commissioner Praveen Pardeshi, in a late night order, has revoked the permission granted to liquor shops which will remain shut until further orders, classifying them as "non-essential" service in Mumbai.

On Monday, after the state permitted the liquor shops to resume business, hordes were seen thronging on the roads all day, making a mockery of physical distancing norms in many areas of the city, and elsewhere in Maharashtra, sparking fresh concerns among health authorities.

Of the total deaths recorded on Tuesday, 26 were recorded in Mumbai alone - taking the city toll to 387 and the number of Covid-19 positive patients in the city shot up by 635 to 9,945.

Dharavi alone recorded 33 new cases, taking the total in Asia's biggest slum to 665 cases and 20 deaths.

Besides Mumbai's 26 deaths, Pune recorded 6 fresh deaths, and one each as reported from Kolhapur and Aurangabad.

The dead comprised 24 men and 10 women, and nearly 82 per cent of them suffered from other serious ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and asthma.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region (Thane Division) continued to cause big worries with 416 Covid-19 deaths and 11,704 patients.

Pune Division trails a distant second with 128 deaths and 2,271 patients.

The next area of concern is Nashik Division with 30 deaths and 571 positive cases, followed by Aurangabad Division with 12 deaths and 405 patients and finally, Akola Division with 17 dead and 241 patients.

On the positive side, 354 fully cured patients returned home on Tuesday, taking the number of those discharged to 2,819.

Meanwhile, the number of people in home quarantine increased from 198,042 to 199,182 while those in institutional quarantine decreased from 13,006 to 12,456 and the state's containment zones fell from 1,026 to 943.

As many as 11,629 teams have carried out a survey of a population of around 50.8 lakhs in the state till date.