In early March, a video of Union Minister Ramdas Athawale made a buzz for chanting ‘Go Corona Go.’ In no time, the chant became world-famous. And now it’s a video game.

Akram Khan and Anushree Warade, two students from Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur have created an educational online game based on the coronavirus named ‘Bhag Corona’. The main objective of the online game is to educate people on how to stay safe and fight the pandemic.

One can play Bhag Corona on bhagcorona.com, which is free and can be accessed from all devices. The game has limited visuals but what catches your attention is that it has an animated character that resembles Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The villain in the game is, of course, the coronavirus. The challenge is to target the sanitiser at this ‘virus’ and kill it. Also, the theme music of this game is ‘Go corona, corona go,’ chant.

Talking to SakalTimes, Akram said, “We realised people are bored during the quarantine period and any game would be an ideal way to spread the message as well as entertain people. Thus, we started making layouts, algorithms, and within eight days, the game was ready. In the initial stage, we used a syringe which threw disinfectant on the target, later we replaced it with our PM Narendra Modi’s face as we thought he should be the hero.”

Anushree, one of the creators added, “We inculcated the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) guidelines too for personal protective measures and hygiene to fight against novel coronavirus, and within few days the game has been played by lakhs of users. We have not and do not plan to monetise the game by adding ads because we want it to serve the purpose of spreading awareness and educating people.”

“We have submitted the application for review on the iOS and Android stores and they will be published soon once their team has completed their review,” Anushree added.

While doctors and scientist toil to find solutions to end the pandemic, you can do the right thing by staying at home, maintain social distancing, following the hygiene guidelines and of course taking out your frustration on the deadly virus through this game.