Gautam Deb, the new chairperson of the board of administrators of the Siliguri Municipal Corporation, on Saturday lashed out at authorities of the city’s private nursing homes for allegedly not working in sync with the state government’s guidelines amid the pandemic.

Deb said most private nursing homes did not update the administration about their infrastructure, including beds, and charged abnormally high fees from Covid patients.

“A section of private nursing homes are charging exorbitant amounts from patients... They are not giving updates about beds....Many are not even ready to accept the state’s Swasthya Sathi card (free health insurance). We won’t tolerate these,” said Deb.

On Saturday, 13 Covid warriors from Alipurduar— who recovered from the contagion last year and were helping Covid patients — left for Calcutta to help manage the Covid situation.

Surendra Kumar Meena, Alipurduar district magistrate, said all had been administered with two doses of the vaccine.