To drive home the dire importance of COVID-19-appropriate behaviour and contain the rapidly-spreading virus, district Collector D. Muralidhar Reddy, Joint Collectors G. Lakshmisha and Ch.Kirthi and Kakinada Municipal Commissioner Swapnil Dinakar tied face masks to the faces of the statues of freedom fighters. The objective was to urge the public to draw inspiration from the freedom fighters and exercise precautionary measures to contain the spread of the virus in East Godavari district.
In a novel attempt to persuade the public to be vigilant on the spread of the COVID-19 by wearing mask, maintain social-distance in public places, the civil servants have launched the initiative.
Later, speaking to the media, Mr. Reddy said despite the district had been witnessing more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases every day in the recent days, people were reluctant to wear masks. “We thought by seeing these statues with masks on their faces, people may get influenced and start following the same,” he said.
He said it was high time the public exercised discipline by wearing the mask and maintaining social-distance in public places.
The Collector directed the officials to use masks on the statues of freedom fighters across the district in their respective area.
By Tuesday afternoon, the statues of many freedom fighters in public places were seen with masks tied as part of COVID-19 campaign.