With LGBT+ communities warned off casual sex during the coronavirus pandemic, the latest dating site figures show people are sending more messages online to meet new people, flirt – and swap explicit images. British HIV/AIDS charity Terrence Higgins Trust (THT) issued a statement on Friday saying the country’s current lockdown and advice to keep two metres from anyone “has to include not hooking up for sex”. “I have never been an advocate of promoting abstinence … but these are extraordinary and unprecedented times,” Dr Michael Brady, medical director at THT, said in a statement. As coronavirus spreads globally, LGBT+ groups are cancelling and delaying a slew of events, from a Tunisia film festival to Pride in London attended by 1.5 million people last year.