On March 17, a week before the Coronavirus-induced country-wide lockdown was announced, the Indian Dental Association (IDA) issued a bulletin to the fraternity cautioning them about the pandemic. "Be prepared … but don't panic," it said, recommending that doctors voluntarily suspend all dental care services that were non-essential or non-urgent. Mumbai-based dentist Dr Diksha Batra's Bandra clinic, like all others, shuttered temporarily. "We closed on March 19, and it felt like my life had come to a halt," she remembers.

Keen to help her community of medical practitioners, Batra began connecting with peers and industry stalwarts to curate a framework to mitigate risks and ensure safe practices. After all, no dental school or management training programme had prepared them for a situation that included not just a prolonged interruption, but also having to deal with a fast transmissible virus that spread through saliva droplets. "We were aware of the guidelines, but there was no clarity on how to put them into practice. We didn't know how much is enough, or how much is too much."