Consumption of  alcohol in Italy has incresed during the covid-19 pandemic by 250%. 

The Istituto Superiore di Sanità (the Italian Health Institute) is ringing the alarm: the home consumption of alcoholic beverages has soared up to 250% during the pandemic and lockdown.

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"The isolation”, explains the ISS, “has led to an increase in uncontrolled alcohol consumption, the digital aperitifs on chat rooms and social networks, often in compensation for the tension resulting from isolation, economic problems, work, relationships and fears spread in the population, certainly made more fragile by the pandemic”.

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On the other hand, the services of alcoholism and departments for addiction and mental health, due to forced closures, specified the ISS, "have experienced increasingly difficult management before, during and after the lockdowns, for the scarcity of available resources, for the amount of unanswered requests due to anti-Covid-19 restrictions and for the unpreparedness related to digital solutions, belatedly introduced”.

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The ISS also explained that “the supply of alcoholic beverages experienced no pause during the lockdown period."  On the contrary, "the market has been strengthened by new alternatives and even less controlled channels with regard to the ban on sales to minors", a contributing factor in changing "the habits of Italians".  So much so that purchases on online channels of e-commerce, "are estimated to have experienced a surge in 2020 between 181 and 250% in home delivery, with an increase in domestic consumption recorded". 

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This is what has been reported by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità in an analysis of the new data on alcohol consumption during the covid pandemic.