Hospitals, fresh food markets and buses. Cash that has passed through any of them in areas exposed to the coronavirus is being collected and destroyed, according to reports about an order from the Guangzhou branch of China’s central bank.
The People’s Bank of China issued the order to protect cash dealings, the South China Morning Post reported. The bank removed 7.8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) from Guangdong province between February 3 and 13, while putting nearly 3 billion yuan back into circulation.
Not every note is shredded. Bills from other hotspots, including Hubei province, the centre of the outbreak, will be quarantined and sterilized before they are used again. Deputy Governor Fan Yifei told reporters at a news conference, according to Bloomberg News, that cash from lower-risk areas will be quarantined for a week. For key virus-hit areas the treatment is longer. “Money from key virus-hit areas will be sanitized with ultraviolet rays or heated and locked up for at least 14 days before it is distributed again,” Fan said.
The government has also frozen the transfer and distribution of old cash across provinces and between the worst-hit cities.
New money is moving the other way. Since January 17 the central bank has distributed 600 billion yuan ($85.6 billion) in fresh currency around the country, the Post said.
China’s health authority reported that the mainland death toll had risen to 1,770 from 70,548 cases since the outbreak began two months earlier.
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- Coronavirus triggers China to destroy, quarantine cash in …
- CHINA'S BANKS DISINFECT OR DESTROY BANKNOTES
