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When the first microscopic images of the coronavirus emerged a
few months ago, Dr. Vorobev, a jewelry firm based in Kostroma, a
city around 300 kilometers (186 miles) northeast of Moscow,
thought the intricately-shaped virus could become a good
addition to its collection.
Sold online for around $20, its sterling silver coronavirus
pendants reproduce the shape of the virus - a circular shell
topped with club-shaped spikes - that causes an acute
respiratory illness known as COVID-19.
"People started buying it, posting the product on their social
media pages," Pavel Vorobev, the firm's founder, told Reuters.
"No matter how sad it is, it has become a trend. It has had a
viral effect."
The virus, which emerged in China late last year, has since
infected more than 777,000 people and killed 37,500 globally,
according to a Reuters tally compiled on Tuesday.
Russia has reported 2,337 cases and 17 deaths across its vast
territory, and on Tuesday registered its biggest daily rise in
cases for the seventh day in a row. Moscow and dozens of other
regions have declared lockdowns.
The company also produces pendants in the shape of hearts, lungs
and DNA double helixes.
Responding to accusations of insensitivity, Vorobev said the
pendants are not intended to cash in on what has become an
international crisis.
"Our followers on social media are respectable people - doctors
and people with ties to medicine," he said, adding that some
former coronavirus patients had purchased the pendants as gifts
for the medical staff who had treated them.
Vorobev said the firm was now planning to donate brooches with
caged coronaviruses to doctors toiling to curb its spread.
(Writing by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Andrew Osborn
and Alexandra Hudson)
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