Patna, May 13 (IANS): Keeping in view the 'positive impact' of its imposition, the Nitish Kumar government has decided to extend the state-wide lockdown in Bihar by 10 days.

The decision was taken after a meeting of the review committee and senior officials of the health department.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday tweeted about the development. "The infection rate has reduced during the lockdown period in Bihar with cases falling below the 10,000 mark in one day. It is helping break the chain of Corona in Bihar. Hence we have decided to extend the lockdown till May 25," Kumar said in a tweet.

Initially the lockdown in Bihar was imposed on May 5 for 10 days.

As per data of the health department till Wednesday evening, positive cases had fallen below the 10,000 mark in the state for the first time after 22 days. Besides, cases have been reducing, for the the last 9 days consecutively.

On Wednesday, the health department said it had conducted 1,11,740 tests in the last 24 hours and 9,863 persons had tested positive.

Earlier on April 19, 7487 cases were registered. During the period of April 19 to May 11, the positive cases were above the 10,000 mark. On some days, the cases reached 15,000 in the state.

The positive cases in Patna were 977 on Wednesday. Besides Patna, only two districts -- Nalanda and Muzaffarpur -- had more than 500 cases in one day. Nalanda recorded 523 cases and Muzaffarpur 506. Apart from these, 35 districts have less than 500 cases.