To prevent the coronavirus epidemic, the Reserve Bank of India suggested that ‘the public should at present avoid using cash and use digital means of payment for transactions’.
RBI Chief General Manager Yogesh Dayal has said, “There may be a need to go to crowded places to send cash or pay bills. For this, two people also have contact, which needs to be saved at the moment.”
The central bank has suggested people use fund transfer facilities like NEFT, IMPS, UPI and BBPS which are available round the clock.
Before RBI, the All India Merchants Confederation (CAIT) also expressed concern over the use of cash.
CAIT national president BC Indian and general secretary Praveen Khandelwal had written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi giving the message that “currency notes made of paper can prove to help spread the epidemic coronavirus”.
The suggestion of running polymer currency
CAIT has also appealed to PM Modi, “Because of the present situation, the Government of India should consider bringing currency notes made of synthetic polymers, through which the risk of spreading the infection is less than that of paper notes.”
This topic is also being discussed on social media. People are sharing the news published in foreign media, in which it is written that banks located in countries like China and South Korea have started making currency notes virus-free.
According to the news published on Yahoo Finance quoting the Central Bank of China, ‘With the help of Ultraviolet Light, currency notes are being cleared. After this, these notes will be kept sealed for 14 days and only then they will be circulated in public.
According to Chinese government media, “In the second week of February, when the number of deaths due to Covid-19 had exceeded 1500, all the Chinese banks were instructed that they could be potentially corona infected.” Withdraw currency notes and continue to sterilize them.
Coronavirus infection started in December 2019 from the city of Wuhan, located in China’s Huawei province.
Can notes and coins be infected?
If we talk about Covid-19, then it is a new virus of the Corona family which causes breathing problems in humans.
Of all the medical research related to this virus in recent times, none of them has researched how the virus is spread through currency notes and coins.
Scientific understanding says that ‘coronavirus can be released in the form of droplets i.e. micro drops through human nose or mouth.’
That is, if you do not wash your hands after taking an infected bill, note or coin, then it can prove to be dangerous.
But can paper notes and coins be infected?
The same question was raised when the work of cleaning paper notes and coins started in China and South Korea.
But in response, research at the time of the 2003 SARS epidemic was cited.
This study conducted in the US said that ‘SARS coronavirus can keep paper infected for 72 hours and cloth for 96 hours’.
And after recent studies, scientists have come to the conclusion that ‘SARS coronavirus and COVID-19 have very structural similarities’. However, the death rate of Covid-19 is still reported to be lower than that of SARS coronavirus.
Keeping all these things in mind, paper currency notes and coins can work as an infected agent and can prove to help spread the coronavirus.
In such a challenging time, the suggestion of RBI to make digital payments is a better option for the public.
But those who cannot completely avoid the use of cash, they should accept the advice of the World Health Organization.
The World Health Organization has said that even if you come in contact with infected cash, you can avoid the problem by washing your hands after taking or giving it.
The World Health Organization has emphasized that ‘Do not touch your face, mouth, nose, ears or eyes after taking currency notes or coins in countries where the coronavirus infection has spread.’
Note: Depression Cure does not provide any type of medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
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