New York City Health Department Releases Updated Safer Sex and COVID-19 Guidelines

It may sound odd to some, given the months of “Stay at home” messaging, but the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) has released guidelines on how to have a pleasurable sex life while also minimizing your chance of exposure to the new coronavirus. The guidelines, released on June 8, acknowledge that while New Yorkers should stay home as much as possible to minimize the risk of spreading SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, “Sex is a normal part of life.” Rather than encouraging people to go out and have sex, the guidelines offer strategies to reduce the risk of COVID-19 if you want to have sex.

“During this extended public health emergency, people will and should have sex,” the department says in its guidance. “Consider using harm reduction strategies to reduce the risk to yourself, your partners, and our community.”

Their safer sex tips fall into six overarching categories:

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The BC-CfE Laboratory is streamlining reporting processes for certain tests in order to simplify distribution and record-keeping, and to ensure completeness of results. Beginning September 2, 2025, results for the ‘Resistance Analysis of HIV-1 Protease and Reverse Transcriptase’ (Protease-RT) and ‘HIV-1 Integrase Resistance Genotype’ tests will be combined into a single ‘HIV-1 Resistance Genotype Report’.
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