Corona Karona: This entrepreneur ran 18 km across a deserted Bengaluru to spread awareness on COVID-19

While the entire city of Bengaluru which used to buzz with people during weekends wore a deserted look due to the escalating COVID-19 scare, Santhosh Mishra went the other way — he ran across different areas of the city to create awareness about the disease. This entrepreneur-cum-software engineer wore a t-shirt crowded with messages about Corona and began his journey at 4 pm to cover the main areas in Bengaluru including Lavelle Road, MG Road, Brigade Road, Koramangala, HSR Layout etc and ended it only on Sunday afternoon. He says, "The idea behind running across the city was to create awareness and positivity among people who are literally scared of this disease. Therefore, I was wearing a t-shirt that had different messages written on the front and back. I did this exercise for two days and people were surprised to see me. Some of the curiously led to them reading the messages on my t-shirt."

Since Santhosh is a fitness freak and has participated in several runs before, it was easy for him to run across the city. He says, "I feel it is all about having a strong immune system. Only then can we easily recover from this disease. But I am stressing on the point of taking precautionary measures rather than suffering after we get this disease. As per my research on the internet the death rate from the COVID-19 pandemic is less than three per cent but the panic is much more than that. With precautionary measures, we can fight this disease and lead a healthy life. Hence, the messages on my shirt also focus on the same point."

Santhosh running in one of the localities in Bengaluru

The messages on his t-shirt read: Say no to panic, Yes to precautions. Corona Karona, Jogging Karona Healthy Rahona Bilkul Darona which means 'go to work, remain healthy and don't panic. He had also mentioned the helpline number 104 so that people can approach the Health Department easily whenever they are worried about whether they have the disease.