Police have started sealing apartments and standalone houses with guardrails, tapes or ropes if a resident tests positive for Covid-19.

A Calcuttan who tested positive for the disease was discharged from hospital on condition that she would quarantine herself at home. On her return home, near Tollygunge, she found the collapsible gate of the apartment bound by a thick rope, though her mother was inside.

Wearing personal protective equipment, she had to wait for 55 minutes at the staircase as no cop was around to break the seal. She could only step in after her 75-year-old mother managed to loosen the knot on the rope and make way for her to slip through.

“Before returning home, I had gone to the local police station in an ambulance. I was waiting in the vehicle, while a friend, who was in her car, went inside the police station to complete all formalities. Still, my flat was sealed when I returned home and no cop was around,” the woman recounted.

Her elderly mother tried to contact an officer of the police station, who was coordinating Covid-related issues in the area, but he apparently did not take her calls.

“I was feeling very weak and was not in a position to stand. So, I sat on the staircase waiting for someone from the police station to come and unseal my home. My mother was standing inside helplessly. When she contacted the local police station’s landline and informed them about my return, they said they had no prior information. I was surprised because I had gone to the police station on my way home,” she told Metro.

A constable turned up after a while and left after seeing that the patient had entered home.

A senior officer of the police station said: “This is unfortunate. Under no circumstances the patient should have been kept waiting.”

Calcutta police commissioner Anuj Sharma told Metro on Thursday night: “I have instructed the local police to keep in touch with residents and respond to their needs.”

A government circular issued on June 1 states that a flat is considered a “containment area” if even one resident tests positive. If residents in more than one flat test positive, the entire building is considered a containment area.

If people in multiple towers in a housing complex test positive, the entire compound becomes a containment area.

“In case of standalone homes, a house is sealed if a resident tests positive. And if residents of multiple houses test positive, the area will be sealed with a perimeter restriction,” a health department official said.

An officer of a police station — not the one that guards the area where the harassed woman lives — said they had been instructed by Lalbazar to help people in containment areas in all possible ways.