After cities, China quarantines cash

BEIJING:China has “quarantined” and started sanitising large volumes of old bank notes for at least two weeks before redistributing them to contain the spread of coronavirus (covid-19) through infected currency.

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has also pumped in billions in new notes in the worst-hit province of

Hubei for the safety of citizens and bank staff dealing with cash.

The central bank has given the order to “withdraw cash from key areas for epidemic prevention and control, disinfect them with ultraviolet or high temperature, and store them for more than 14 days before putting (back) them in the market,” Fan Yifei, the PBOC deputy governor said on Saturday. Notes will also be “quarantined” in less riskier areas for a week, he said.

BEIJING: China is sanitising large volumes of old currency notes for at least two weeks before redistributing them in order to contain the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak through “infected” cash.

China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), has pumped in billions in new notes in the worst-hit central Chinese province of Hubei for the safety of citizens and bank staff dealing with cash.

The central bank has given the order to “withdraw cash from key areas for epidemic prevention and control, disinfect them with ultraviolet or high temperature, and store them for more than 14 days before putting them back in the market,” Fan Yifei, the PBOC’s deputy governor, said at a press meet on Saturday.

Money circulated in less risky areas is also subject to a week of

“quarantine” - or stored for a week - before being put back in circulation.

Commercial lenders have been asked to separate cash from hospitals and food markets, he said.

Fan said around on January 17, the PBOC “allocated nearly 600bn yuan of new banknotes, and hurriedly put 4bn yuan of new banknotes into Wuhan before the spring festival”.

“The suspension of inter-provincial and intra-provincial cash transfers in some severely affected areas has minimised personnel movements and reduced the risk of infection and transmission in transit,” said Fan, according to a transcript provided by China’s state council information office.

It is helping that China’s electronic payment market is robust and rapidly expanding. In 2018, 82.39% of Chinese adults used electronic payments, up by 5.49% over the previous year.