The UK government has advised anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19 to stay indoors for 14 days. It has also warned anyone over 70 or at high risk to also self-isolate as much as possible. 

Support for those at high risk has been strong: hundreds of neighborly support groups have sprung up across the country. In Hackney, east London, more than 4,200 people joined a Facebook group, with people volunteering to deliver food and prescriptions to vulnerable people and to walk the dogs of those in self-isolation.

There is now an online organization called COVID-19 Mutual Aid which registered around one thousand support groups around the country, like the one in Hackney, in less than a week.

READ MORE 1,000-plus UK volunteer groups spring up to fight COVID-19

The focus is on providing advice, resources and connecting people to their nearest local groups, willing volunteers and those in need.

Keeping positive while staying indoors is another major challenge. Here communication, be it by phone, online or even by post, can be a morale booster.

One care home in Buckinghamshire was taken aback by the response after posting on social media that because of coronavirus its elderly residents, aged between 76 and 101, were now isolated inside with no visitors allowed.

Strangers from around the world started sending letters and postcards to residents there.

For ageing resident Aileen Davis, such kindness has helped lift her spirits: "It makes me feel somebody cares," she said. "I think that's the important thing - we need to think that somebody cares."

All sporting events in Britain and most of the rest of the world have been cancelled. In Glasgow, Partick Thistle Football Club has changed its name to Patrick Thistle Family Club and is reaching out to elderly season ticket holders.

Jamie Sneddon is the team's goalkeeper. "They come and pay to see us every weekend so it's the least we can do in this time when they can't come and watch us. So we do our bit and help whatever that is."

Players and staff have started contacting all of the club's elderly and vulnerable fans to see if they can be of any help, using its resources to support its supporters by delivering groceries as well as posting videos of old games online.

Some supermarkets have started opening early, giving priority entry to the over-70s and other special needs customers so they can shop in peace and get what they need. Others are giving them priority entrance during the day.

This follows ugly scenes where some panic buyers have shown little regard for the elderly and those with special needs, with young fit people pushing past them.

Italy made headlines for neighbors lifting spirits by communal singalongs.

Now members of the Soul Inspiration Choir in Oldham, near Manchester, have started giving street performances for their neighbors who are stuck indoors.

In these difficult times thousands of ordinary people are taking the initiative to pull together and help those in need.

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