COVID-19 (coronavirus; called SARS-CoV-2 starting from Feb 11, 2020) was detected in 19 countries at the moment of writing. Though the death rate is no higher than 3%, and there’s a decreasing trend observed, people in all parts of the world are worried about the risks to get infected with the disease. We are still getting a lot of questions on the chance to catch the virus through parcels from AliExpress.
You can find the answers to the most frequent questions on coronavirus and its lifetime of surfaces here. In this post, we will focus on the present-day statistics on the situation with coronavirus in the world. We also prepared the data from our parcels tracking service – Megabonus Package Search proving there’s no risk to be infected via parcels from China.
Number of Parcels from China to Russia Dropped
Last month the number of parcels delivered from China to Russia dropped by 67%. This resulted from 3 major factors:
1. The Chinese New Year (the Spring Festival) which was extended due to the outbreak of coronavirus.
2. The coronavirus outbreak of COVID-19 followed by the quarantine in the country. Most businesses, factories, as well as post offices were closed.
3. A psychological factor. Regular Chinese stores’ customers were unhappy with delayed shipping; individual buyers were afraid of being infected through parcels.
Can I be Infected through a Parcel from China?
According to the Megabonus Package Search statistics, there were no cases of coronavirus transmission through the 2,000 packages delivered to Russia in February and tracked with the help of our tool.
We would also like to remind you that coronavirus cannot live long (2-9 days maximum according to different sources of information) outside the host. As it normally takes at least several weeks for a parcel to be delivered from Chine outlands, there is no risk to infected with coronavirus through goods from Chinese stores.
Coronavirus in Numbers on March 3, 2020
- 100 confirmed in 15 US states, 6 fatalities in the USA; 3,130 dead from SARS-CoV-2 in the world.
- 92,289 infected globally.
- 126 new infections in China on this day.
- 42,289 recovered.
More live data can be found here.
The numbers can look pretty scary when taken isolated. But when we analyze the statistics, it becomes clear that in general the situation became controlled and the number of death cases is significantly decreasing.
Table 1
| Number of cases/Date | Feb 1, 2020 | Feb 15,2020 | Mar 3, 2020 |
| Infected | 11,953 | 50,580 (+323%) | 92,289 (+82%) |
| Dead | 259 | 1,527 (+489%) | 3,130 (+104%) |
| Recovered | n/a | n/a | 42,289 |
As seen from the table above, the number of infected people and death cases increased, but the growth rate has become much lower within 2 past weeks. This is also confirmed with the data from Worldometers research dated from March 2, 2020.
The growth factor above 1 indicates an increase, while the factor below 1 means a decrease, and it is observed since February 29,2020.
China Returning Back to Normal Life
At the end of last week (Feb 24), Chinese factories and businesses started to get back to operating. Most public places are opening to visitors (cinemas, cafes, etc.). Strict preventive measures that can help stop spreading the virus are taken though.
According to Marketeatch.com data, 43% of small and medium businesses were reopened on Wednesday, February 26, 2020. 60% of people in the 100 largest Chinese cities returned to their work areas. The Chinese biggest online retailer AliExpress resumed shipping after February, the 20th.
Final Thoughts
The conclusions we can make nowadays are the following:
- There’s no chance to be infected via any parcels, as COVID-19 can live outside the host for no more than 2-9 days.
- The total number of the infected and the dead from coronavirus is growing, but the increase rate has become substantially lower.
- They managed to put the situation under control in China, and the country is slowly returning to normal life.
These facts make us believe the situation with coronavirus in the world will shortly improve. Take care and stay tuned to learn the latest true and up-to-date information with Megabonus.
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