In a bid to spread awareness about the severity of the Coronavirus pandemic as people continue to defy the lockdown orders, the Tamil Nadu Police has come up with an innovative method to make the defaulters understand the importance of staying home.

The police has collaborated with a local artist named Gowtham to design a helmet that looks like the virus.

Police inspector Rajesh Babu was seen wearing the coronavirus-themed helmet and speaking to motorists at a checkpoint in Chennai making them aware of the importance of the 21-day nationwide lockdown.

Speaking to news agency ANI, the officer said: “We had been talking to public. But awareness among them is very less. So we thought of doing something different. We designed a helmet that looks like coronavirus. We thought of doing something which will scare the people and make them stay at home.”

“The public at large is not treating the COVID-19 situation seriously, whereas, the police personnel are working round the clock to ensure people stay at home and do not venture out so that further spread of the disease can be stopped,” artist Gowtham said.

“I came up with the idea and used a broken helmet and papers to prepare this. I have also prepared many placards displaying slogans and handed them over to the police,” he added.

It’s just been four days into the lockdown and people across the country have already started defying the “stay-at-home” order with many venturing out for no reason.

In view of this, authorities across the states have taken strict measures.

The Central government had last week announced a lockdown till March 31 in 80 districts across India to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus. The restrictions were extended after Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday night declared a 21-day nationwide lockdown.

However, with people continuing to step out for non-essential activities amidst the COVID-19 lockdown, police across the country have come up with unique ways to highlight the importance of staying at home.

From making COVIDIOTS’ (a term coined for those flouting restrictions) squat on the road and do sit-ups, to making them pose with pamphlets admitting their fault, police officials have pulled out all the stops from their kitty of creativity to drive home the message.

The police forces in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand took their creative ways a notch higher to ensure that the public curfew is followed.

UP Police punished unnecessary people wandering around in order to make ‘public curfew’ successful and maintain social distancing.

While defaulters in Punjab were asked to either crawl on all fours, or lie down flat on the road, those in Uttarakhand were made to pose with pamphlets that said, “I’m enemy of society; I won’t stay home.”

In places like Guntur, Telangana, Sikar (Rajasthan), police were seen beating up those flouting the rules with lathis. In several cases, people out for essential activities were also harassed by the security personnel.

Over 450 people were arrested in Kolkata since Wednesday for defying the lockdown order.

India on Saturday witnessed the highest single-day jump with 149 new cases of Coronavirus, taking the tally to 873. Nineteen deaths have also been reported amidst the 21-day lockdown.