Strange ideas to face coronavirus, from plexiglass for tables restaurant to fashion masks

Last updated on February 27th, 2023 at 11:19 am

While governments are working to plan the activities reopening for the second phase of the new coronavirus pandemic, citizens and entrepreneurs are launching initiatives and strange inventions to facilitate the return to normal. A restaurant in Rome is now testing out a way that people can sit down for a pleasant meal while still maintaining the recommended social distance of 2 metres (6 feet). A plexiglass divider placed on the table to help lower the risk of COVID-19 contagious. The restaurant, Il Ciak, located in Rome’s Trastevere movida district, has only been open for take-out and delivery, but the owner, Valerio Calderoni and his wife Martina began testing out the divider this week.

The company ‘Nuova Neon Group 2’ launched the dividers on the tables. The absolutely transparent panels can be mounted on the tables of the catering sector. In fact, it will soon be necessary to live with Covid-19 by adopting measures suitable for economic recovery. Life, of course, will never be the same again and having dinner in a restaurant or pizzeria, or toasting in a pub on Saturday night could be more complicated than expected. This is why, to encourage customers, spaced tables with appropriate transparent dividing barriers could be used.

From Italy comes another bizarre idea for our beach holidays amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Italians do not seem ready to give up the beach at all. So how do you do it? Three meters away between an umbrella and the other and then plexiglass barriers. A company specialized in roofing, stands and window frames has started to distribute solutions among beach clubs.

These are transparent boxes made with Plexiglas walls and aluminium profiles. The boxes measure 4.5 meters per side with a 1.5-meter-wide access. At the moment the price of the installation is not known but, especially on the Romagna Riviera, the proposal seems to be successful.

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It’s not all. Ideas for fashion addicts come from Asia and the United Kingdom, where clothing companies have started producing fashion facial masks with prints, beads, rhinestones and lace. If it is necessary to wear a mask, why not give up being fashionable? Masks for the day and for the evening, casual or elegant to combine with the handbag or shoes.

Not everyone goes crazy over these strange ideas born at the time of coronavirus. In Italy lifeguards have already rejected the plexiglass cabins on the beach. While in the UK, online fashion retailer Boohoo has been criticised for selling fashion face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic. The £5 masks came with messages such as “Eat, sleep, isolate, repeat” or “If you can read this, you are too close”. The Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw) said they were “scandalous” and one NHS nurse said it was “disgusting”. The retailer has apologised and removed the masks from sale, insisting they were not designed for “protection”.