Chinese banks have been ordered to disinfect cash before issuing it to the public in an effort to curb the spread of the new coronavirus that has so far killed 1,770 people in the country.
The Chinese government said during a press conference on Saturday that banks would only be permitted to release new bills which had been sterilized.
Cash transfers between China's provinces had also been suspended, which the State Council claimed had minimized the movement of personnel and reduced the risk of transmitting the new strain of coronavirus — formally named COVID-19 — during transit. Authorities issued 4 billion yuan in new banknotes to Wuhan, the city at the epicenter of China's coronavirus epidemic, before the Lunar New Year holiday in late January.
However, Muhammad Munir, a virologist at Lancaster University in England, told CNBC Monday that China's efforts to decontaminate cash would have a minimal impact on containing the coronavirus.
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