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.”

View this post on Instagram

I’ve been overwhelmed by the support of #IStayHomeFor so far. For those of us staying home, let’s remember and support the heroes on the front lines of this fight, our health care workers and first responders. Thank you for your tireless work. I’d also like to thank all others who are still working: food service professionals, energy and government workers, and so many others who are not able to work from home. We are all so grateful. Like many of your posts have mentioned— so many of us are staying home for those who can’t. We see you and we thank you. Thank you all for sharing. And keep ‘em coming. #IStayHomeFor . . For the rest of the folks I couldn’t tag in the photo, thanks for participating: @jerome.m.padilla @scrambled_megs @staciewolfinger @blessedbag_charity @lenotebook.de.laurie @ryancoldwellbanker @foziaschannel @allbos @alejobele

A post shared by Kevin Bacon (@kevinbacon) on

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.

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.”