JALALABAD: Afghan cyclist Idrees Syawash is determined to help curb the spread of the coronavirus so he pedals across rural areas encouraging people to wear masks and wash their hands, reports AFP.

“When coronavirus came to Afghanistan, I went to some villages and saw that people were not aware of it at all,” Syawash, 27, told AFP as he travelled across the eastern province of Nangarhar this week. “I decided to use my bicycle... to launch a door-to-door awareness campaign.” Afghanistan reported its first case of the virus in the western city of Herat in February and now has more than 8,600 confirmed infections, with the capital Kabul as its epicentre.