If you're caught here without a mask, you dig graves for COVID-19 victims

These are difficult times. And desperate times like these need desperate measures. A village in Indonesia, hence, is playing its part to implement such measures amid the coronavirus pandemic.

If a person is caught without wearing a face mask in Cerme district of Gresik Regency, East Java, he or she is given a unique punishment.

The person is asked to dig graves for victims of COVID-19 by local authorities in the hopes that a little bit of manual labour and empathy will convince others to do their part to help stop the pandemic.

Though mask-wearing is mandatory in public throughout Indonesia, there has been a vocal segment of the population that has been reluctant to wear masks and practice social distancing.

Three middle-aged men and five minors, to this end, were given this punishment on September 9, authorities said.

Coronavirus, to date, has infected nearly 230,000 people in the country. More than 160,000 of those patients have recovered, while at least 9,100 have died, according to the Indonesian Health Ministry.

Indonesia's government passed a law in July requiring people to wear masks in public, but left it to local officials to determine punishments for noncompliance. In Cerme, the joint team of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, Indonesian National Police and local law enforcement decided to give those caught not wearing a mask the option of accepting a fine of 150,000 rupiah ($10) or accepting what the government calls "social punishment."

None of those punished were, however present when the dead were buried.

Authorities in the capital of Jakarta adopted a similar idea earlier this month. A man there was required to sit in a coffin in public after being caught not wearing a mask.

Meanwhile,Indonesia has drawn criticism from public health experts for its relative lack of testing, its patchwork social restrictions to contain the spread of the disease and a list of unscientific treatments praised by cabinet ministers. At least two ministers had also caught the virus.