To spread awareness about COVID-19, a restaurant chain in India's Tamil Nadu state has started selling food items by presenting them with a coronavirus theme.
“Temple City”, one of the biggest restaurant chains in the state's Madurai district, has started making traditional Indian "Parottas" - which are like Mexican tortillas in the shape of face masks - and coronavirus-shaped south Indian delicacies like “Dosa” and “Ponda” to raise awareness.
According to the restaurant chain’s owner K. L. Kumar, the aim is to make people aware of the need to wear masks in public places so as to reduce the spread of the infection.
“We conceptualised the product on Tuesday and brought it into the market from today. With the district being under a complete lockdown due to the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases, any or all awareness about the pandemic is important right now for the public,” Kumar said.
He added that despite being the second most infected district in the state, people are still coming to the restaurant without a mask.
“We have to give them one at the entrance for ours as well as their safety. Even in the city, people roam around without a mask. So, creating something of this sort would help in spreading the importance of mask. Since the innovation was launched, we have started getting a lot of orders,” said Kumar.
The idea of raising public awareness in this fashion comes at a time when the Indian government has made it mandatory to wear masks outside the house.
A total of 742,417 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in India and more than 20,640 people have died, according to the federal Health and Family Welfare Ministry.