This police officer in India just took pandemic prevention to a new level. Rajesh Babu―an officer guarding the streets of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu―has gone viral on social media for wearing a helmet that looks just like coronavirus.
The country, with a population of 1.3 billion, is on a 21-day lockdown in order to limit the spread of the virus. Therefore, the Chennai police officer Rajesh has taken an unusual strategy to stop people in the middle of their trips to teach them about the importance of staying at home. So he teamed up with a local artist named Gowtham who made the officer’s helmet by using paper.
Image credits: Reuters
Talking to Asian News International, Rajesh Babu said: “We take all the steps, but still people come out on the streets. Therefore, this corona helmet is one of the steps we are taking to ensure that people are aware of the seriousness of the police. The helmet is an attempt to do something different.”
Image credits: Reuters
“When I wear this, the thought of coronavirus comes into the minds of the commuters,” the policeman told the local media. “Especially, the children react strongly after seeing this and want to be taken home.”
Image credits: Reuters
Rajesh is sad that people are not taking the quarantine seriously: “We had been talking to the public. But awareness among them is very less. So we thought of doing something different.” At the moment, there are over 1,000 people infected in India with Covid-19.