China has taken the odd and unprecedented step of quarantining yuan bank notes or paper bills for up to 14 days to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
This remarkable piece of news was revealed Saturday by the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank. PBOC said it has begun to place in quarantine used yuan or renminbi bank notes to arrest the spread of COVID-19.
A new study recently published in The Journal of Hospital Infection warned coronaviruses such as SARS can survive for an average of up to four to five days on surfaces. The SARS coronavirus might even be able to survive for up to nine days outside of the human body at room temperature. The study also said low temperature and high air humidity further increase the lifespan of coronaviruses.
The study authors pointed out COVID-19 and SARS belong to the same coronavirus family.They predict Covid-19 will likely be similar to previous coronaviruses in terms of its ability to survive outside of the human body and its susceptibility to disinfectants.
PBOC said yuan bank notes will be disinfected with X-rays or high temperatures before being kept inside a safe for 7 to 14 days. The quarantine period for the bank notes will depend on the seriousness of the crisis in each region, said Fan Yifei, a PBOC vice-governor. The bank notes will be circulated again once the quarantine period is over.
"We must protect the security and the health of cash users," said Fan,
He also said bank notes exchanges between Chiense provinces are suspended for now. This PBOC decision follows an alarming rise in the number of Chinese refusing to use cash for fear of contamination by COVID-19.
Before China's lunar New Year annual holiday that began January 25, PBOC issued "emergency cash" worth $574 million (RMB4 billion) for Hubei province where the COVID-19 outbreak began on December 2019. This flood of new money led a large number of Chinese speculating these bank notes might also have since become infected with COVID-19.
Fan also said PBOC will continue with its prudent monetary policy. Implemented since 1998, this prudent monetary policy has four components: the steady growth of total money and credit; readjustment of credit to support economic growth; maintaining domestic financial stability and the stability of the yuan's exchange rate and transitioning from direct regulation to indirect regulation of monetary policy.
On the other hand, some financial analysts now contend China has to ease its monetary policy to revive its battered economy, which is being hard pressed by both the rampaging COVID-19 outbreak and the ongoing trade war with the United States.
