In many crises, people quickly come out to lend a hand. With coronavirus, however, we are being told to keep our hands to ourselves. Yet for some people, the idea of doing nothing is not acceptable.

Ilaria Nardone, 33, who lives in Venice, Italy, works at the tech startup Prontopia, which normally offers local concierge services to travelers. When Italy went into lockdown, she repurposed the platform. Young, healthy volunteers, wearing gloves and masks, deliver groceries, medications or other necessities to the homebound. They drop the purchase on the doorstep, receipt included, and the recipients pay using credit cards or apps like PayPal.

“We only see them at a distance,” Ms. Nardone says. “But they are super happy and grateful.”

It’s a common impulse to want to help. People have survived some of history’s worst circumstances by banding together. It may be harder to do at a time when social distancing, self-isolation and quarantining are watchwords of the day. But we need to listen to our better impulses.

“In disasters we talk about social networks being a primary form of resilience,” said Nicole Errett, a disaster researcher at the University of Washington and co-director of its Collaborative on Extreme Event Resilience. “Figuring out creative ways to maintain social networks can change the game for communities. It makes it so we can get through this together,” Dr. Errett said.