AS the UK celebrates Mother’s Day, social distancing measures imposed amid the coronavirus outbreak mean many people cannot visit their families.

For those with parents in their 70s or older, contact is restricted to phoning, video calls, or keeping a safe distance from their elderly relatives.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he could not “sugar-coat” the threat the virus poses to vulnerable groups in particular, and urged Britons to “avoid any unnecessary physical contact or proximity” to family.

Mother and sonThe son and daughter of Olive Trotman, 76, kept a safe distance from her when they visited to deliver Mother’s Day gifts (Jacob King/PA)
Mother's Day visitThe family greeted each other through a window (Jacob King/PA)
Mother's Day visitMark Trotman did venture inside his mother’s house, but kept a safe distance away from her at all times (Jacob King/PA)
Mother's Day visitMrs Trotman, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and emphysema, was delighted with her Mother’s Day cards and displayed them in her window (Jacob King/PA)
CoronavirusGrandmothers are also celebrated on Mother’s Day, and Ben and Isaac spent time with theirs through a glass door (Alan Rickett/PA)
CoronavirusThe boys were able to talk to grandmother Sue through the door at her home in Knutsford, Cheshire, on Sunday (Alan Rickett/PA)
CoronavirusThe boys took flowers for their grandmother, which they left outside for her to collect once they had left (Alan Rickett/PA)
CoronavirusBut for Helen Walters, and many others across the world, the best option was a video call (Dominic Lipinski/PA)