WASHINGTON : A study published in the journal PLOS ONE has revealed that the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid -19 seems to become almost immediately non viable when it gets deposited on cash notes.
Contradicting previous understanding of reducing the use of cash notes to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the study has shown that the virus shows greater stability on plastic money cards, with the live virus still being detected 48 hours after initial deposition.
The study further stressed that the use of credit and debit cards over cash as a Covid-19 prevention measure is not advisable.
However, no viable virus was detected on either cash or card that was randomly sampled in the study, the researchers said. "Early in the pandemic, we had this massive outcry for businesses to stop using cash; all these businesses just followed this advice and said OK we are credit card only," said study author Richard Robison, a professor at Brigham Young University (BYU) in the US. "I thought, 'Wait a minute, where are the data to support that?' And there simply wasn't any.