Pneumonia mortality rate exceeds 4.96%! Italy is under nationwide lockdown, cross-border sellers are in urgent need

Italy's new epidemic control is upgraded again! The whole country is closed!

According to CNN, starting from the morning of March 10, no one in Italy is allowed to leave their place of residence except for work or health reasons, and any public gatherings, sports events and activities are completely banned everywhere. This new ban will be in effect until April 3.

At 2 a.m. on March 8, Italy just announced the lockdown measures, blocking the entire Lombardy region in the north and 14 provinces including Veneto.

However, Italy's lockdown has not been very effective in curbing the spread of the epidemic.

According to the latest data released by the Italian Ministry of Health at 18:00 local time on March 9, the total number of confirmed cases of new coronavirus infection in Italy is 9,172, an increase of 1,797 cases from the previous day, and a total of 463 deaths.

What happened in Italy after the lockdown order was issued on the 8th?

Because the lockdown order on the 8th was leaked in advance by Italian media, some panicked people rushed to the train station the night before, trying to "escape" hastily before the lockdown order came into effect. Unfortunately, some of those who fled were infected on the way.

After issuing a large-scale "city lockdown order", Italian authorities suspended visits by prisoners' families in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in prisons. On the same day, a series of prison riots broke out in ten cities in Italy due to dissatisfaction with the new regulations.

Soon after the lockdown, people went on a "frenzy to buy food and other necessities", hitting supermarket business.

After the lockdown order was issued, supermarkets, restaurants and bars in Milan city are still open as usual, but the seats inside are required to be kept at a greater distance.

Of course, the reason behind Italy's lockdown is the sharp increase in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and the high mortality rate.

According to Reuters, citing statistics from the Italian Civil Protection Agency, Italy's COVID-19 mortality rate has now exceeded 4.96%, the highest in the world.

Several other senior Italian officials have been infected with the new coronavirus.

Army Chief of Staff Salvadore Farina, Lazio Regional President and Democratic Party leader Nicola Zingaretti, and Piedmont Regional President Alberto Sirio have been diagnosed with the disease one after another.

The current situation in Italy is: 1/4 of the population is under quarantine, the Army Chief of Staff has been confirmed infected, the death toll has surged, and the total number of confirmed cases is approaching 10,000.

Professor Luo Hongbo, a well-known expert on Italian issues, said in an interview that Italy was actually one of the first countries to take prevention and control measures, but due to multiple factors such as cultural traditions, living habits, national system, people's character, and medical system, the nearly 40-day golden period of prevention and control was wasted, leading to the outbreak of the epidemic.

Cultural tradition: Italy is a country where square culture is prevalent. Italians like to gather together in the square to chat for one or two hours, or even longer. This has created conditions for the rapid spread of COVID-19.

Living habits: Italians believe that apart from medical staff, only sick people need to wear masks, and those who are not sick do not need to wear masks, so they continue to gather, eat, and chat. This ignores the incubation period of the new coronavirus, which has serious consequences.

National system: Italy implements local decentralization in administration, which makes it difficult for the central and local governments to coordinate in the implementation of prevention and control. Some measures and policies of the central government cannot be implemented quickly and effectively at the local level. What's worse, not only are they ignored, but they are also done the opposite.

Medical level: Italy is the second largest country in the world in terms of aging population after Japan. In addition, due to the European debt crisis and economic crisis this year, the economy has declined severely, the budget of the public health system has been reduced, and many hospitals have been closed. The outbreak is not a problem of medical level, but a problem of insufficient capacity of the medical service system.

Of course, some Italian experts and scholars underestimated the severity of the epidemic and took it lightly, which misled the public and led to the outbreak of the epidemic!

In fact, apart from Italy, the epidemic situation in the whole of Europe is not optimistic. The number of confirmed cases in France and Germany has now exceeded 1,000.

France, in particular, as an immigration country, may have a large number of imported cases, and the French people have recently taken to the streets to protest for their rights.

Italy has already closed its borders. I hope that neighboring France can learn some lessons from Italy.

The epidemic situation abroad is on the rise. How big is the impact on cross-border sellers?

As we all know, the European Union is a union with free and convenient travel. Now that Italy has fallen in the epidemic, the economy of the entire European region has also been affected.

Some Amazon sellers who mainly sell on the Italian site are distressed. The nationwide lockdown in Italy is undoubtedly making things worse for FBA sellers who have heavy positions in these areas.

Some AliExpress sellers also said that the conversion rate of AliExpress is really poor recently.

However, some optimistic sellers said that the impact of the epidemic on order volume is far from coming, and based on their own understanding of the European market, the impact of the epidemic on cross-border e-commerce is limited.

A quarter of online retailers in the UK with revenues of more than £1 million are expected to see a boost in sales due to the coronavirus outbreak, a study by Reuters suggests.

Sellers on e-commerce sites such as Amazon and eBay have seen sales growth of around 25%, with some seeing sales growth of up to 150%.

Foreign media said that people choosing to shop online rather than go to shopping malls and retail stores is the main reason for the growth of e-commerce sales.

It is true that during the epidemic in China, more people have shopped online at home. However, for the products themselves, the sales of non-essential goods and daily necessities have definitely changed differently during this special period.

At this time, what sellers need to do is to prepare stocks rationally and lower their expectations.

Of course, various platforms have also been introducing some measures in response to the epidemic abroad.

For example, in response to the impact of the Italian epidemic on logistics, Wish also issued an announcement stating that the platform is closely monitoring the logistics routes of orders to Italy, and has confirmed with Poste Italiane that most local postal codes and regions are sending orders normally.

The outbreak has confined many people to their homes, but everyone's shopping needs still exist. The only difference is that the purchasing method has shifted from offline to online. The increase in online consumption is also an opportunity for sellers.

All that said, sellers, don’t panic!