Latest Chinese Move: Quarantine the Money

Central bank plans to take banknotes out of circulation, disinfect them
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 16, 2020 7:53 AM CST
Latest Chinese Quarantine: The Money
In this Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019, photo, a man walks by a money exchange shop decorated with Chinese yuan banknotes and other countries currency banknotes at Central, a business district in Hong Kong.   (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)

China is moving to do some serious money laundering in order to slow coronavirus: All yuan notes collected by hospitals, wet markets, and buses will be destroyed, the Guangzhou branch of the People’s Bank of China says. A deputy governor of the central bank earlier said that nearly $86 billion in new cash had been distributed in the country over the last month, including $576 million in stricken Wuhan. What banknotes it doesn't destroy, PBOC plans to store for 14 days and disinfect with high temperature and ultraviolet light, reports the South China Morning Post. The current tally on Sunday in China: 69,278 cases, 1,670 deaths, and 9,467 recovered patients. (More coronavirus stories.)

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