With the death toll now 213, and more than 9320 infected with the disease 98 of them outside China mask stocks are running low, or non-existent in some areas.
It’s left many desperate to protect themselves using everything from garbage bags and ski goggles to motorbike helmets and cut-down plastic water cooler bottles — despite the fact the methods are far less effective.
A woman was spotted at Vancouver airport on January 28 wearing a surgical mask and a large plastic bottle on her head.
Images of people wearing bottles on their heads have been circulating for days, with two people in Hong Kong snapped wearing the plastic protectors, while another man was tweeted wearing a bottle on his head in a Jinyintan Hospital near the epicentre in Wuhan.
Shoppers were also spotted with different forms of protection
May God help us all!