NSW Health’s PlaySafe website offers advice for sex during COVID-19 pandemic

Having sex while wearing a mask is among the recommendations on an official NSW Health website that explains how to be intimate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NSW Health advises people to wear a three-layer mask to cover your nose and mouth during intimacy.

Having sex while wearing a mask is among the recommendations on an official NSW Health website that explains how to be intimate during the COVID-19 pandemic.

NSW Health’s ‘PlaySafe’ portal is offering tips on how to remain “COVID-safe” during the pandemic, but it has been slammed by some MPs as a waste of resources.

The website begins by attempting to allay fears of how COVID-19 could be spread during sex.

“While one study from China did find traces of COVID-19 in semen, there is currently no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 can be passed on through semen or vaginal fluids,” the website reads.

“What we do know for sure is that COVID-19 is transmitted via respiratory droplets (saliva, snot … basically anything that sprays out of your mouth or nose).

“And having sex without sharing respiratory droplets is pretty hard (and probably not that much fun!).”

The PlaySafe website recommends using a mask during sex. Picture: iStock

PlaySafe offers the revelation that sex with a partner who is living with you is safe.

“If you’re living with your partner sex is probably okay, as you are already sharing space and being in close quarters,” the website reads.

The website discourages people from having casual sex, but offers some risk reduction strategies for those going ahead regardless – the most puzzling being a suggestion sex could be had with a mask on.

“Wear a three-layer mask to cover your nose and mouth if you can,” the website reads. It also advises “avoid kissing” and “wear condoms and dental dams”.

An article on PlaySafe even suggests ­“mutual masturbation” although it maintains “the safest form of sex during COVID-19 is solo sex.”

PlaySafe recommends mutual masturbation should be done at a distance, including staying “a minimum of 1.5 metres (apart) at all times”.

“Consider wearing masks to minimise the risk of COVID-19 even further, or even take the fun online,” the NSW Health advice states.

“Solo sex” is one of the suggestions on the PlaySafe website.

Other advice includes “hot messaging” with someone, using sex toys, having phone sex and using intimate video chat.

One Coalition MP told the Daily Telegraph the suggestions to “take the fun online” or embrace video chats could pose a heightened risk of someone having intimate content secretly recorded.

One Liberal was “gobsmacked” that the government was using taxpayer resources to “encroach” in people’s bedrooms.

Chief health officer Kerry Chant said NSW Health has provided a lot of advice for young people about the pandemic including on how it relates to safe sex.

“We‘ve incorporated COVID advice within the context about STIs … advice for young people,” she said.

She said NSW Health has been able to leverage young people’s interest in and concern about COVID to provide advice on broader sexual health.