Indian man wears $4,000 gold face mask during coronavirus pandemic

  • 18 Jul - 24 Jul, 2020
  • Mag The Weekly
  • Mag Files

This coronavirus protection is pure gold. An Indian businessman is going viral after paying $4,000 to have a face mask made out of the pricey precious metal. “It is a thin mask and has tiny pores that is helping me to breathe,” Shankar Kurhade, 49, of Pune, told Agence France-Presse. “People are asking me for selfies,” he said. “They are awestruck when they see me wearing the gold mask in markets.” Kurhade, whose company makes industrial sheds, told the Indian Express that he “didn’t do it for publicity” – but said the mask probably isn’t the best choice to fight the contagion. “I am not sure if it will be effective to protect me from a coronavirus infection,” he admitted to AFP about the mask that weighs two ounces. The businessman said he’s “taking other precautions.” “It is not the gold or cloth mask, but social distancing and hand washing that will protect human beings from coronavirus,” he told the Indian Express. India has made face masks mandatory in public places in a bid to control the pandemic. As of last week, the country had almost 700,000 confirmed cases with close to 20,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

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