Last month at a bar in New York City, where more than 30,000 people have died from COVID-19 and lives are still claimed by the virus each day, a seemingly intoxicated guest walked in and told a bartender who was delivering drinks, “Let me hug you!”

“After having such a long period of time after we’ve had to be socially distanced, I feel like people are going to be longing to go back to that, to a standard of connecting with people through a hug, something that feels familiar,” says Daniel Saynt, founder of the New Society For Wellness, a sex-friendly private members club based in New York. As he’s welcomed guests back into his establishment of late, he’s observed some people break down in tears over experiencing their first hugs in over a year. “There is an importance for people to incorporate hugging into more of how they connect with people,” Saynt says. “But it’s also important, obviously, to ask for consent and make sure you’re confirming that person wants to be hugged. In doing so, you’re going to help heal a lot of the damage and trauma that was caused over the past year and a half, and I think that’s very important for everyone to consider.”