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 son
The 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 visit
The family greeted each other through a window (Jacob King/PA)
Mother's Day visit
Mark 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 visit
Mrs 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)
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Grandmothers are also celebrated on Mother’s Day, and Ben and Isaac spent time with theirs through a glass door (Alan Rickett/PA)
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The boys were able to talk to grandmother Sue through the door at her home in Knutsford, Cheshire, on Sunday (Alan Rickett/PA)
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The boys took flowers for their grandmother, which they left outside for her to collect once they had left (Alan Rickett/PA)
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In Warwickshire, Phyllis Taylor, 83, is delivered Sunday lunch by her daughters Sarah and Denise through her window (Jacob King/PA)
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Her daughters said they didn’t want to get any closer to their elderly mother during the pandemic (Jacob King/PA)
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But for Helen Walters, and many others across the world, the best option was a video call (Dominic Lipinski/PA)