This police officer in India just took pandemic prevention to a whole new level. Rajesh Babu―an officer patrolling the streets of Chennai, the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu―has gone viral on social media for wearing a helmet that looks just like coronavirus.

At the moment, the country, which has a population of 1.3 billion, is on a 21-day lockdown in order to limit the spread of the virus. Therefore, Chennai police officer Rajesh has taken an unusual approach to stop people in the middle of their journeys to educate them about the importance of staying at home. So he teamed up with a local artist named Gowtham who customized the officer’s helmet by using paper.

This Indian police officer wears a coronavirus helmet to encourage people to stay home

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.”

The country of 1.3 billion is currently under a 21-day lockdown

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.”

“This helmet is one of the steps we are taking to ensure that people are aware of the seriousness of the police”

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.

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