Hollywood star Kevin Bacon has urged people to stay at home amid the coronavirus pandemic.

His comments came as thousands of people in the UK ignored calls for “social distancing” and went to parks, markets and beaches.

The 61-year-old actor told Good Morning Britain: “If you’re not trying to protect yourself, at least try to protect the people that are around you…

“There are a lot of people who can’t stay home.”

Speaking via video link, the US star told the ITV show: “We should be staying at home for them as well, to protect the first responders and medical workers and the unlikely heroes coming out of this thing – people working in grocery stores and essential services.

“They don’t have the luxury of staying at home.”

Bacon has been promoting the I Stay Home For… social media campaign, which asks people to say who they are staying in for.

Hey everybody, now it’s so important to STAY HOME and keep our distance from others. Join me and post a video or photo with a sign like this, with #IStayHomeFor, telling who you are staying home for, & tag 6 friends. Let's work together to stay home and keep each other safe. pic.twitter.com/ybv63bE42t — Kevin Bacon (@kevinbacon) March 18, 2020

The popular parlour game Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon – a play on the concept of “six degrees of separation” – posits that anyone on earth is six or fewer links of acquaintance away from the Footloose actor.

He said: “It’s a very, very true idea that we are all connected and this virus is a really sad and scary example of that, when you see how it is spread to person to person to person.”

The star added: “I have family members who I’ll still see but only outside and at a 10ft distance, which is really strange. They’re not coming into the house but I’ll actually be able to see them.”