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Coronavirus: Could hugs and handshakes die out in wake of pandemic?

Smiling young woman welcoming friend for backyard party. Female are socializing on weekend. They are wearing casuals.
Could hugs die out in the wake of the pandemic? (Getty)
Coronavirus
Coronavirus

For millennia, human beings have greeted each other with hugs and handshakes or variations thereof.

But experts have warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could put an end to such greetings.

Handshakes, which began in ancient Greece as a way to show that someone was not carrying a weapon, could be under threat from the virus, scientists have said.

Hugging is also set to become less common than it was, according to Robert Dingwall, a professor of social sciences at Nottingham Trent University.

Dingwall told CNET: “I think we are likely to wash our hands more, and more carefully, for quite a long time to come.

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“I don't think physical distancing will persist, although it was already increasing as a result of #MeToo. We probably won't keep six feet away from others – but I don't think we will hug them as often as five years ago."

Other experts have suggested that the culture around such gestures could change, depending on how bad the coronavirus epidemic gets.

Rachel Austin, of UNC Charlotte, told the Charlotte Observer: “This came on very quickly... so people will take awhile to adjust to, say, doing the elbow thing. And it might not be something that sticks around. I think that largely is going to be determined by the course of this pandemic.”

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Austin points out that variations on the handshake, or entirely new greetings, can form and become ingrained in culture.

Austin said: “There are certain things that happen within cultures that create new ways to gesture to one another that have endured – like the dap, for instance... the handshake where you put your fist on top, then your fist on the bottom, then one side of your hand, then the other side of your hand, and then you clasp.

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“It was something that African-American servicemen developed as a gesture of commonality and solidarity during the Vietnam War, and it’s carried forward and is now something that’s really culturally ingrained.”

The UK’s official death toll reached 1,228 on Sunday after rising by 209 – the second largest day-on-day rise in the number of deaths reported since the outbreak began.

As cases continue to rise, it was revealed on Monday that Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings may have joined the ranks of those the virus.

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The news comes after the prime minister and the health secretary announced on Friday that they had both tested positive for the virus. The government's chief medical adviser Chris Whitty and Scottish secretary Alister Jack are also self-isolating after experiencing symptoms.

Cummings is now self-isolating after reportedly falling ill over the weekend.

To tackle the onslaught of cases, health officials have been racing to scale-up the UK’s intensive care capacity with the construction of the NHS Nightingale, a new 4,000-bed hospital being built at the ExCel centre in east London.

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