Early action: Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata airports had started screening of travellers by January 17.
| Photo Credit:
B. Velankanni Raj
RTI reply says screening for passengers from China and Hong Kong started on January 17.
Universal screening for all international passengers at 30 airports across India started on March 4. Over 15.24 lakh passengers were screened for Covid-19 symptoms between January 15 and March 23, according to an RTI reply from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).
Also read: Coronavirus | Testing capacity for COVID-19 scaled up to 95,000 per day, says Harsh Vardhan
On March 15, the Prime Minister’s Office had said in a tweet: “We started screening entry into India from mid-January itself, while also gradually increasing restrictions on travel. The step-by-step approach has helped avoid panic: PM @narendramodi #SAARCfightsCorona.”
Air travel in India was suspended on March 23, two days before the first phase of lockdown started in the country.
Initially, scheduled internati