Covid 19 coronavirus: If you have sex, make it kinky and wear a mask, New Yorkers advised

Couples are advised to wear masks during sex. Photo / 123RF

New York's City Health Department is urging people to wear masks while having sex, to help stop the pandemic.

Guidelines from the department state that New Yorkers should try to stay at home and have minimal contact with others, but accept people "will, and should, have sex".

Whether the coronavirus can spread through intercourse has not yet been examined closely by scientists, although some believe it can be sexually transmitted.

But because the virus is known to spread through breathing in proximity to others, health officials say wearing masks in the bedroom should be considered.

"Make it a little kinky," the health department guidelines said. "Be creative with sexual positions and physical barriers, like walls, that allow sexual contact while preventing close face-to-face contact."

The guidelines also added: "You are your safest sex partner".

Officials said those engaging in sex with a new partner should ask each other if they could have recently contracted the virus.

For those seeking sex online they advised "Zoom parties" instead of arranging to meet in person. People having sex with new partners should get tested for coronavirus five to seven days later, the guidelines said.

It follows a study published by three Harvard physicians in the Annals of Internal Medicine, which found that while abstinence was the best way to protect against the virus, it could also have "dangerous" implications and "insidious psychological effects".

Dr Jack Turban, lead author and Harvard Medical School resident, said: "History has taught us that abstinence-only recommendations do not work, and they can result in poor health outcomes.