The Bengal government has said 64 per cent of Covid-19 patients in the state are male and of the total cases, over 50 per cent are above the age of 45, urging relatively older people — particularly those with co-morbidities — to stay at home.

As the extension of lockdown-like restrictions beyond May 3 appeared increasingly likely, chief secretary Rajiva Sinha said on Wednesday that 88 per cent of all cases reported in Bengal till date were from the red zones of Calcutta, Howrah and North 24-Parganas. The fourth red zone is East Midnapore.

“We want to tell you something interesting we found from our analyses. Of the total Covid-19 positive cases in the state till today, 64 per cent are male, 36 per cent are female. This is in keeping with the national and international averages,” said Sinha.

“Of the total cases, more than 50 per cent are patients aged 45 or older…. That is why, we keep saying, those relatively older, with problems (co-morbidities), please, please stay home,” he added.

Bengal on Wednesday reported no new deaths directly related to Covid-19, while five infected persons were discharged, taking the total number of cured patients to 124.

The state on Tuesday put the death toll at 22.

“There were 33 new Covid-19 positive cases. The total number of active novel coronavirus positive cases in the state today is 550,” said Sinha.

The state, said Sinha, had 1,397 tests conducted at the 14 Centre-approved laboratories, taking the total number of tests to 14,620.

“Of the total tests, 86 per cent have been carried out by government-run laboratories,” he said.

“In the labs, we have a total capacity of 1,405 right now, which will only go up (with the Centre’s approval for more labs). Even from the existing labs, the capacity is without increasing machines, the number of shifts and the human resource,” he added.

The chief secretary said the 66 Covid-19 hospitals in Bengal had 8,000 beds with 10 per cent of them in intensive care units. “There is bed vacancy of 50 per cent,” he said.

“We have here 87 Covid-19 beds per million people. The national average is 85. We are not only better than the national average, but also in the top five in comparison to the other states, in terms of preparations or dealing with the patients,” added Sinha.

The chief secretary said 34 per cent of the 8,000 Covid-19 beds were in the worst-affected districts of Calcutta, Howrah and North 24-Parganas.

“In the red zone (including East Midnapore), we have 38 per cent of the beds (over 3,300),” he said, adding that in the 11 districts of the orange zone — Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, East Burdwan, West Burdwan, Hooghly, West Midnapore and South 24-Parganas — there are 50 per cent of the beds.

In the eight districts of the green zone — Alipurduar, Cooch Behar, North Dinajpur, South Dinajpur, Birbhum, Purulia, Bankura and Jhargram — there are 12 per cent of the beds.