Update (9 September 2020): All Chinese cities are out of quarantine. You can safely buy from any city. Be sure to look out for dates when there are massive shopping discounts on Taobao!
Covid19 has became a global cause of concern as of time of writing this article (4 February 2020). China has locked down several cities to try to contain the spread of this virus so far, including Wuhan, Chibi, Ezhou and more. Since the virus can spread from human to human, there is considerable concern around the globe that the virus can spread via packages arriving from China. This article aims to address this issue.
As the virus has no cure or vaccine to date, consumers around the globe are reasonably concerned that people and things from China would be contaminated with the Wuhan virus and spread it to them. According to the CDC, while human to human transmissions are possible, it is NOT likely that the virus can be transmitted via packages and parcels from China. This is based on the pattern scientists have learnt from similar Zoonotic viruses like SARS and MERS, which are also coronaviruses. There has been no cases so far of the virus spreading via packages or parcels due to the very low possibility of the virus surviving on the open, only from animal to human or human to human transmissions.
You can thus be rest assured that ordering from Taobao is safe. However, due to many city-wide traffic stoppages, it is essential to only order from cities which are not under quarantine, to esure that your items reach you in time. The picture below shows the line to find the city in China the item ships from to the warehouse.
