The fear of Covid-19 first gripped Delhi on March 13 last year when the mother of a 46-year-old man, who had tested positive on his return from Italy, died of the deadly virus.

The man had travelled to Japan, Geneva and Italy, before boarding a flight from Italy to India on February 23. Italy had by then become a hot spot.

After his mother died, the main challenge for the authorities was to identify the people who had come in contact with him.

Through contact tracing, at least 813 people, including 707 working with him in a factory in Noida on the outskirts of Delhi, were identified to have come in contact with him.

So, all of them had to be tested and sent to quarantine centres.

Panic had also set in as the person had taken metro and other means of public transport from his residence to his the factory. It was impossible to trace all the people travelling along with him.

That was the time when panic gripped our newsroom as well. Many colleagues would commute in metro and one saw the fear of getting infected on their faces.

The management decided to immediately implement work from home.

A few days later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a nationwide lockdown to contain the pandemic.

Rest as they say is history.