Hyderabad cyclist rides 20-30 km to spread awareness about COVID-19

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], April 15 (ANI): To create awareness on COVID-19, a 47-year-old man in Hyderabad has been cycling for the past fortnight, covering 20-30 kilometres daily while visiting various parts of the city and sensitising people about the importance of social distancing and wearing face masks.
"I have been cycling for more than 15 days in Hyderabad city, creating awareness about social distancing and wearing masks in order to help people to prevent themselves from coronavirus," the cyclist, Dinesh Gupta, said.
"We should be careful for this whole year and take preventive measures. Mask is nothing new to this culture because people earlier used to wear masks to prevent themselves from getting infected," he added.
On his cycle, Gupta has a few pictures related to the campaign so that people are able to understand the messages. The pictures read messages of staying home and asking coronavirus 'to go back'.
"Hi Corona, forgive us and go back," read one of the messages.
"I have kept a lot of pictures on my cycle so that the people can understand the message just by looking at the pictures," Gupta explained.
He said that COVID-19 is a deadly virus and one cannot escape it. "The only way we can pass (the test posed by) the coronavirus is to create awareness and take all precautions," said the cyclist.
According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of positive cases in Telangana is 624, including 100 recovered and 17 deaths.
With 1,076 new COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's tally of coronavirus cases rose to 11,439, said the ministry on Wednesday.
Out of the tally, 9,756 cases are active while 1,306 patients have been cured/discharged and migrated. With 38 new deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll mounted to 377. (ANI)