The Kamrup (metro) district administration on Saturday barred the entry and exit of any person or vehicle from Spanish Garden, a luxury highrise apartment here, where the first positive case of Covid-19 in the city was detected on Friday night.

The order came into effect from 10am on Saturday but officials and health personnel started the process of sealing the apartment complex soon after the detection. The personnel were present in full force throughout the day.

There are 150 flats in the complex in which a businessman, who tested positive for novel coronavirus, lives with his family. He returned from Delhi on March 1 but is the first of the 25 positive cases in Assam with no link to the Nizamuddin congregation. So far, 111 people, with whom he came in contact, have been quarantined to check the spread of the virus.

“In view of the detection of Covid-19 positive patient Manish Tibrewal, a resident of flat no. 704, Block-D, Spanish Garden, R.G. Baruah Road, Guwahati, in the interest of maintenance of public hygiene, it is felt necessary to immediately seal the area/campus of Spanish Garden Apartment, R.G. Baruah Road, Guwahati to arrest the spread of Covid-19,” an order signed by the deputy commissioner and chairman, district disaster management authority, Kamrup (metro), said.

The order said entry and exit would remain barred till the area was completely surveyed and sanitised by the health authorities.

Movement of any vehicle into and out of the complex was also prohibited with immediate effect.

“Any violation of this order will attract action under the provisions of The Assam Covid-19 Regulations, 2020, The Disaster Management Act, 2005, The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and other relevant laws of the nation,” the order said.

Sources said Tibrewal, who hails from Nagaon district, and his family, including his wife and two children, went to Delhi on a business trip and returned to Assam on March 1. He had not displayed any symptoms but when he felt feverish, he went into self-isolation on March 17. On March 22, he consulted a private doctor after developing respiratory issues. He tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday and it was officially declared on Friday night.

Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “We suspect he got infected by another person in the state. He may have got infected from an unidentified patient/carrier in Guwahati.”

The minister said the apartment complex had been sealed and turned into a “containment zone” for 14 days at least, except for medical emergency, to check the spread of the virus. A few residents from the complex will help out in maintaining the supply of essential items which will be dropped at the entrance gate by the district administration, he added. “The family is fully cooperating,” Sarma said.

Tibrewal, who has been admitted to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, with his family also in quarantine, used social media to appeal to those who may have recently met him to quarantine themselves.

His relatives too shared information about the social gathering involving the affected.