The man with the golden mask is Shankar Kurade of adjoining Pimpri-Chinchwad town who got the mask made costing around Rs 2.90 lakh.

As pictures of him went viral on social media, he admitted that though it had minute holes to breathe and was comfortable to wear, he was unsure if it provided any safety against the deadly virus.

The mask is made of thin gold leaf along with golden threads to tie it and the cost is roughly equivalent to the cost of over 175,000 ordinary disposable masks or more than 700 PPEs in the market.

Kurade's golden mask is another addition to a handful of Maharashtra men who are passionate about gold, including Pankaj Parakh of Nashik who owns a 4.10 kg pure gold shirt costing over Rs 1.30 crore which earned him a place in the Guinness World Records.