The Covid-19 outbreak has seen people in Singapore and overseas coming up with a whole host of creative means of protecting themselves.
One woman in China has come up with a similarly novel way of safeguarding herself against the virus.
Instead of donning the usual PPE (Personal Protection Equipment) like masks or goggles, the woman, surnamed He, has chosen a giraffe costume instead.
Bought the giraffe costume online
The woman had been visiting a hospital in Luzhou city, in Sichuan province to collect medicine for her parents, reported Daily Mail. She was also there to pick up her uncle, who was to be discharged on that day.
A video of He waddling around in her inflatable giraffe costume has gone viral on Chinese social media.
Aside from the costume, which covers her from head to toe, she was filmed wearing gloves and plastic coverings over her shoes.
She told Pear Video that she had resorted to the wacky costume as a means to protect herself, as she was unable to buy more masks.
Due to the extremely high demand, China and numerous other countries like Hong Kong have been experiencing major shortages in masks and PPE.
She thus ordered the giraffe costume online, and had also purchased another alien costume.
Reusing masks from 2017
As the healthiest in the family—the rest of her family members were elderly—He said that she is the only one fit to leave the house to shop and run errands, in order to reduce the risk of the rest of family contracting the virus.
Additionally, the masks He had at home had already expired, and were long past their use-by date.
However, she told Pear Video that she would still wear these masks, which she acquired in 2017, to the supermarket.
Experts have warned against reusing masks, as users could run the risk of self-inoculation. Masks should ideally be discarded at the end of each day, or when it is damp and dirty.
He wearing her expired mask. Screenshot from Pear Video / YouTube
He continued that she did not "care what others think [of her]" in the giraffe costume, as long as she was able to do what she needed to do.
You can watch the full video, which is in Chinese, here.
Top photo from Pear Video / YouTube