Coronavirus COVID-19: Tennis star Maria Sharapova participates in Safe Hands Challenge--Watch

This challenge requires a person to wash his or her hands with soap or alcohol-based sanitiser and post the video of the same on social media while also nominating three others to take up the challenge.

In a bid to raise awareness regarding the importance of hygiene and clean hands for fighting the novel coronavirus that has shaken the world this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently initiated the Safe Hands Challenge on social media.

Many celebrities have taken up the challenge in order to influence the people all over the world to follow this safety measure to combat the threat of COVID-19.

And the latest entrant to join the bandwagon is Russian tennis star and world number one Maria Sharapova.

Taking to her official Twitter handle, the 32-year-old posted a one-minute long video of herself in which she could be seen washing her hands thoroughly with soap. 

"You got me out of my robe for a brief minute, @AngeKagame. Challenge accepted in an 80’s hair scrunchie Smiling face with smiling eyes #SafeHandsChallenge   #StayHome #please ???? Thanks for starting this initiative, @PaulKagame. We miss Rwanda so much Flag of RwandaTwo hearts,"she wrote along with the video. 

Meanwhile, Sharapova also added one extra step of using hand lotion after wash as the skin usually dries out from all the extra self-care. Notably,  the Russian five-time Grand Slam champion announced her retirement from the game in February 2020.

According to this challenge, a person needs to wash his or her hands with soap or alcohol-based sanitiser and post the video of the same on social media while also nominating three others to take up the challenge.

Earlier, many other sports personalities namely legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, ace Indian shuttler PV Sindhu, Indian sprinter Hima Das, tennis ace Sania Mirza, hockey player Rani Rampal, shooter Manu Bhaker and wrester Geeta Phogat also took up the challenge and stressed on the importance of personal hygiene in the current times.

The WHO recently declared the coronavirus outbreak as a 'pandemic', prompting the governments worldwide to take extraordinary measures to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

The virus outbreak, which was first reported in December 2019 from Wuhan city of China, has so far claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people and has affected more than 2,80,000 persons globally.