Dr Michael Brady, Medical Director

The country is now on lockdown to slow the spread of coronavirus and that has to include not hooking up for sex.

I've never been an advocate of promoting abstinence, but this message is not about protecting your sexual health: it’s about protecting your general health and those around you from a virus that can be deadly. This is extraordinary and unprecedented advice for us to be giving out, but these are extraordinary and unprecedented times.

This follows the new measures which have been announced by the Government telling everyone to stay at home, to stop face-to-face socialising, to stop all non-essential journeys and to limit our movement to activities like going out to the nearest shop for food and one form of exercise a day. In addition, as announced by the Prime Minister, you must also stay away from anyone outside your immediate household to stop the virus being spread from one household to another.

This advice means that, unless you have sex with someone within your household, it’s important to find sexual pleasure in other ways. Despite the situation with COVID-19, we need to remember that sex is an important part of life, but right now we have to find other ways to achieve sexual pleasure and satisfaction.

It’s only natural that we look to sex for pleasure, to relieve stress and anxiety or simply to pass the time – whether that’s with a regular partner or using hook-up apps. But our ‘new normal’ is that we have to find ways to do this while sticking to the advice to stay at home. This isn't just to protect ourselves against the coronavirus but also to protect the most vulnerable in our society. Read more via Terrence Higgins Trust