With the novel coronavirus spreading across the US and around the world, countless countries are observing strict "social distancing" practices, avoiding large congregations, staying home unless absolutely necessary, and maintaining a safe distance from other people.

This presents something of a problem for Hyundai's logo which, believe it or not, was actually designed to resemble two people shaking hands. It is unwise to shake hands in the time of a global pandemic.

But being a responsible company, Hyundai wasn't content to maintain a logo that appeared to promote a breach of social distancing protocol, so they've gone back to the drawing board for a fresh new icon. What they've come up with is tremendous.

Hyundai's cheeky new logo, which was revealed earlier on the automaker's global Twitter account, depicts two stick-shaped people positioned opposite each other within the same familiar Hyundai oval, except instead of shaking hands, they're bumping elbows. If you're unfamiliar with the elbow bump, it's like a fist bump only more hygienic, and it commonly goes through cycles of popularity, peaking every time there's a particularly nasty strain of the flu or some other illness going around.

For as long as COVID-19 continues to circulate, we should all try and be like Hyundai, foregoing the handshake and instead bumping elbows with friends, strangers, professional acquaintances, and cherished family members.

To be clear, we don't imagine that Hyundai's new logo design is actually going to end up adorning the all-new Hyundai Elantra, nor does it seem to have wound up replacing the logo displayed on Hyundai's website. That's probably for the best; for as much as we get a kick out of the design, we don't know that customers would necessarily be able to take it seriously.

Like all automakers, Hyundai has been deeply affected by the recent viral outbreak, this week reporting a first-quarter sales decline in the US of 11 percent stemming entirely from a staggering 43-percent drop in March. The company was also prompted by the outbreak to temporarily shutter its Montgomery, Alabama factory, where the Elantra, Sonata, and Santa Fe are produced, and where Hyundai's forthcoming pickup truck is to be built.