Britons have been urged to not visit their mother’s Sunday as the country celebrates Mother’s Day amid a worsening coronavirus outbreak.
"If your mother is elderly or vulnerable, then I am afraid all the statistics show that she is much more likely to die from coronavirus," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said in an address to the nation Sunday. "This time, the best thing is to ring her, video call her, Skype her, but to avoid any unnecessary physical contact or proximity."
Cases of the novel coronavirus topped 5,000 in Britain over the weekend, with over 200 reported deaths.
A Downing street source told the BBC that the prime minister was expected to Skype his own mother Sunday.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan also appealed to Britons to stay home Sunday.
“I love my mum. That's why this mother's day I'm picking up the phone and calling her — not visiting as I usually do,” Khan wrote on Twitter.
Johnson warned in a speech Saturday that unless Britons immediately put forth a “heroic and collective national effort to slow the spread” of the virus, that Britain’s National Health Service will soon be overwhelmed.
Many Britons took to social media Sunday to post about how they would wish their mothers a happy Mother’s Day without risking exposing them to the virus.
