NSW Health not so peachy keen on Covid hookups in lockdown

Faced with soaring Covid case numbers, New South Wales Health has urged single people to stay in, watch Netflix and chill.

Under state regulations people in NSW are allowed to form “singles bubbles” with one other person, but authorities tweeted on Monday afternoon, reminding those on dating apps that leaving the house for a one-night stand was not counted under “compassionate grounds”.

Nor does it count as “exercise” or “click and collect home delivery” – though some did have questions about “care giving” and the definition of “stranger”.

Some users of popular dating service Grindr reported feeling personally attacked.

In choosing which suggestive fruit to use to communicate their intent, NSW Health’s social media team appeared to shy away from the raw clarity of the eggplant emoji – despite the universal symbol of male virility being the obvious choice.

Instead they chose the peach emoji – a detail immediately noticed by the viewing public.

For the naive – or merely the techadverse – the peach emoji is the symbol of the “booty” or the “butt”, though it has been considered at various times as a representation of sensual femininity.

In one effort to rank various emoji by level of desire, Cosmopolitan magazine placed the peach just higher than the eggplant, but well below the purple devil face, reasoning: “The peach, with its demure little stem and perky leaves, is too innocent to ooze unbridled horniness.”

The emoji itself was at the heart of a furore when in 2016, Apple announced it would give the peach emoji an update – a decision it quickly reversed after the emoji loving public were not so peachy keen on that idea.