media. A Chinese online survey examining 1074 individuals during lockdown showed higher rates of anxiety, depression, hazardous and harmful alcohol use (assessed with the AUDIT), and lower mental wellbeing (Ahmed et al., 2020). Temporary bans on alcohol were decided, mainly with the aim of decreasing potential domestic and other types of violence (Rehm et al., 2020). While South Africa or Thailand decided to ban alcohol, other countries preferred to avoid the social stigma that may decrease the access to medical care and lead to an increased risk of complicated withdrawals, as reported in India (Balhara et al., 2020; Narasimha et al., 2020; Varma, 2020). According to Google, South African queries on the search for alcohol distillation at home has risen by 500% over the lockdown period (COVID-19 Lockdown: South Africans are Asking Google How to Make Their Own Alcohol as Booze Ban Bites [WWW Document], 2020). In other countries, lockdown might lead to an increased use of alcohol. In the US, alcohol sales have increased of 55% in one week (Associated Press, 2020). In France, a large on-line survey reports an increase of alcohol use in 31% of participants (Rolland et al., 2020). The main factors associated were being aged
