With concern over the spread of the coronavirus and the insistence to take all necessary precautions to prevent the spread, some First Coast News viewers reached out with questions about the cleanliness of using cash and coins.
First Coast News spoke with Dr. Alexea Gaffney-Adams Friday morning to answer those questions. Based in Stonybrook, New York, Dr. Gaffney-Adams is an expert on infectious diseases and family medicine.
“It should not be a significant issue because while the coronavirus can linger on inanimate objects and surfaces that are frequently touched, it lingers the longest on non-porous surfaces,” she said. “Money is porous, so it would dry out.”
Gaffney-Adams said the virus would only last a few hours, at the most, on cash and coins. Therefore, she said it shouldn’t be a significant concern if someone would need to withdraw cash out of an ATM because that cash can sit for days in the ATM, long enough for the virus to expire.
Regarding getting cash back at a store, she said the greater concern there would be with human to human contact.
“Above and beyond the money, you’ve also touched the items on the shelf, maybe you’ve touched the keypad, maybe you touched the handle of the shopping cart, the door to get in and out of the place,” Gaffney-Adams said. “To minimize the issue to just the contact of dollars exchanged is really minimizing the severity of the situation. We have to think about all the surfaces we touch.”
She said it’s impossible to not touch any surfaces, “you can’t avoid everything”, that’s why practicing good hand hygiene is of the utmost importance.
“To limit our concern to the exchange of cash dollars or coins has us not focused on the bigger issue at hand,” Gaffney-Adams said.
Meanwhile, according to the Asia news outlet CNA, South Korea's central bank announced two weeks ago that it would be quarantining “banknotes” for two weeks, “to remove any traces of coronavirus”. They also reported they were “even burning some as part of efforts to stem the outbreak”.
If people continue to be wary of using cash, there are alternatives. Mobile payments that require no human contact range from Venmo and Cash App to Apple Pay and Google Pay. Those mobile payments and apps allow consumers to use smart devices to pay in stores and online.
If people want to avoid in-person shopping altogether, there are alternatives that are gaining popularity, like using grocery delivery services.
Many, if not most, stores are making changes on their own to prevent the spread of the virus.
Starbucks has temporarily prevented the use of personal mugs and tumblers to prevent the spread of the virus. Delivery services like Doorstep Delivery and Grub Hub have rolled out policies that would prevent any human contact between the person delivering items and the customer by leaving items at the door.