Is it safe to have sex during the coronavirus pandemic?

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As the majority of Americans are under some type of stay-at-home order to help slow the spread of the coronavirus, you may be wondering if it’s safe to have sex in the age of social distancing.

So is it? 

The virus is mainly spread through touch or respiratory droplets, which means kissing can easily transmit the virus.

For this reason, health experts suggest only sleeping with a partner you already live with – and only if you’re both healthy, according to Health.com.

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What if I have a serious partner who doesn't live with me?

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“Start talking on the phone, have video chats, sext or have phone sex if that’s your thing,” Dr. Jen Gunter, an OB/GYN in the Bay Area, writes in a New York Times op-ed.

Is it sexually transmitted then?

"There is no evidence that the COVID-19 can be transmitted via either vaginal or anal intercourse,” Dr. Carlos Rodríguez-Día, a professor at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health, tells The Guardian. Aside from the risk from touching and kissing, “There is also evidence of oral-fecal transmission of the Covid-19 and that implies that analingus may represent a risk for infection.”

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What if I’m single?

The New York City Health Department recently issued coronavirus sex guidelines echoing the recommendation of intimacy only with someone in your household along with masturbation.

“You are your safest sex partner,” the guidelines say.

It also stresses using protection and washing hands before and after sex.

Experts suggest virtual dating instead of the real thing during the outbreak. In many states, stay-at-home orders have closed restaurants, bars and movie theaters, leaving people few options for a date anyway.

Rodríguez-Día tells The Guardian, “If you’re concerned about practicing social distancing for too long, make sure that you and the people you know practice social distancing now. The sooner we do it, the sooner we’ll see a decline in new infections, and the sooner we will be able to change our practice of socializing.”