Police in India wear ‘coronavirus zombie’ costumes to scare people off the streets

Authorities in New Delhi, India, have taken to wearing ‘coronavirus zombie’ costumes in order to scare people into staying home.

Sporting spiky red Covid-19-like helmets, gloves and full body hazmat suits, the Indian police walk around like zombies.

RP Meena, deputy commissioner of police in Dwarka, said:

When these volunteers are on the streets and stopping people and making them understand, it leaves a visual impact in people’s minds. It helps people understand how dangerous the virus is.

It motivates people to take all precautions necessary to avoid this virus.

The World Health Organisation’s current advice on avoiding the spread of Covid-19 is to “Practice physical distancing by avoiding unnecessary travel and staying away from large groups of people”.

It’s not the first time authorities in India made headlines for the way they were handling coronavirus.

Earlier this month, officials in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh came under fire for spraying people trying to enter the city with a bleaching powder.

Shocking video showed officials in protective gear spraying a group of crouching people with sodium hypochlorite solution – the main ingredient in laundry bleach.

They then turn around to make sure they’re sprayed on both sides of their body.

At the time of writing, India has almost 30,000 confirmed cases and sadly 937 people have died.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, announced a strict nationwide lockdown on 29 March.

As a result, millions flocked from big cities to their rural home cities, after food shortages and job losses.