A video showed a raccoon washing its hands thoroughly with soap and water.
The simple act of washing hands lies at the centre of protecting oneself from the highly contagious novel coronavirus, which has infected more than 6,000 people in the country and over a million across the globe. The government has been sharing the correct way to wash hands, agreed upon by the experts around the world: 20 seconds with soap and water, repeatedly throughout the day.
A lot of videos depicting the right way to clean hands for keeping the virus at bay have been doing the rounds on social media. And, the latest addition to the hygiene bandwagon is that of a raccoon.
Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer Parveen Kaswan today shared a 15-second video which shows a raccoon washing its hands thoroughly with soap and water. The animal first puts its hands in a bowl of water, then takes soap from a second bowl and rubs it on its hands thoroughly. The raccoon, in the video, was also seen scrubbing the back of its hands and between the fingers.
The video, posted on Twitter, has picked up over 19,000 views and many likes so far.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), in a bid to instil the habit of cleaning hands with soap or alcohol-based rub, had launched the 'Safe Hands Challenge' last month. The challenge has been taken up by people from all walks of life.
According to the experts, washing hands with soap is one of the basic steps to prevent the spread of coronavirus that has killed close to a lakh people worldwide.
The total number of coronavirus positive cases rose to 6,761 on Friday after nearly 900 tested positive for the virus. 37 COVID-19-related deaths were reported in the last 24 hours - largest-ever single day spike in the number of fatalities.