Fighting the coronavirus head-on

As India enforced a nationwide lockdown in an effort to combat the coronavirus pandemic, one police officer in Chennai found an eye-catching way to raise awareness.

Police Inspector Rajesh Babu was seen wearing his special helmet while stopping vehicles and pedestrians at a traffic checkpoint in the Indian city last Saturday.

The helmet is covered in red spikes with bulbs at the ends, mirroring what the coronavirus looks like under the microscope.

CNN reported that local artist B. Gowtham came up with the idea for the helmet after noticing a lack of public awareness about the pandemic and the preventa-tive measures.

Mr Gowtham felt that people were not taking the virus seriously because it was an invisible threat.

To counter that, he decided to create something that people could clearly see, and might even frigh-ten them.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on March 31, 2020, with the headline Fighting the coronavirus head-on. Subscribe