There are two things in this world that the Coronavirus fears: a potential vaccine and 555 cologne. How the now-state owned Chabrawchi product ever passed off as an actual scent people used to smell attractive is anyone’s guess, but one thing is for sure. The Egyptian household item which has been in the back of medicine cupboards since 1920 has been moonlighting as a popular germ killer. If Chuck Norris was a fragrance produced by the Egyptian Sugar and Integrated Industries, a subsidiary of the Food Industries Holding Company, which is a company of the Ministry of Supply and Internal Trade... look the point is HE WOULD BE 555.

As the prices of imported alcohol-based sanitisers and disinfectants doubled or tripled in the past few weeks while pharmacies ran out of ethyl alcohol, millions of Egyptians have suddenly decided that their parents weren’t actually crazy for spraying their hands with 555 every time they touched Egyptian banknotes all those years.

The cologne used to sell for 18 EGP for a 260 ml bottle before the pandemic but due to high demand it currently sells for 36 EGP. A product conspicuously described as a citrus aromatic fragrance for men with lavender and woodsy notes is essentially a bunch of cheap alcohol with lime, and is now Egypt's heroic eau de-sinfectant.