“At this time of national emergency, we need a functioning Parliament to hold ministers to account on their response to the coronavirus,” said Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party. “There are too many questions that have gone unanswered.”

Caroline Lucas, a lawmaker for the Green Party, argued that, given available technology, the only thing missing was political will. And Alastair Campbell, once a close aide to the former Prime Minister Tony Blair, posted an exhortation on Twitter to bring back Parliament, using a mild expletive to underline his impatience.

The lack of a visible parliamentary presence is all the more jarring after a period when British lawmakers grabbed global attention as they feuded over how to leave the European Union.

Parliament was such a focal point of opposition that Mr. Johnson tried to suspend sittings for five weeks during the Brexit crisis, only to be rebuked by the Supreme Court. The impasse over Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union was finally broken when Mr. Johnson won a big majority in December’s general election.

But going online is not easy for an institution so steeped in tradition that casting a vote requires lawmakers to pass through a narrow lobby where their names are recorded by officials in formal dress.

Paradoxically, the job of facilitating one of the biggest revolutions in the workings of Parliament falls largely to the leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees-Mogg, a man whose mannerisms are so self-consciously old-fashioned that he has been nicknamed “the honorable member for the 18th century.”