Doctors are encouraging those engaging in sex acts during the Coronavirus to wear protection… and they don’t mean a condom! (Although you should probably wear one of those too).

While – in the UK – it is now illegal to have sex with anyone outside of your household (nobody in Blackpool did that anyway), it’s not such a simple or realistic requirement. Hence why three researchers at Harvard are encouraging people to wear masks if sexual contact goes ahead.

In fact, they even reported that implying sex as dangerous could have “insidious psychological effects at a time when people are especially susceptible to mental health difficulties.”

Outlining a handful of risk reduction techniques, in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal they suggested the following:

1.Reduce one’s number of sexual partners.

2. Avoid sex with partners showing COVID-19 symptoms.

3. Wear a mask during sex.

4. Avoid kissing and “sexual behaviors with a risk for fecal-oral transmission or that involve semen or urine.

5. Shower before and after sex, wiping down the surfaces used if possible

Referring back to our initial joke, doctors have expressed concern that STI rates will rise around this time as there will be less medical attention being provided, and so LGBTQ people and those of colour should extra precautious.