A step forward towards a cashless society: The unexpected outcome of Coronavirus

According to the World Health Organisation(1), Covid-19 can be transmitted through infected objects. The virus survives from few hours up to several days on surfaces and objects. This leads us to ask: Can we get infected by touching coins, banknotes, bank cards or even ATMs? 

According to the Chinese government, the answer is “yes”. Despite the fact that the risk of infection remains limited, the government is determined to take no risk as regards Coronavirus. Measures have been taken since February in order to disinfect banknotes in order to stop the spread of the virus. 

Banknotes judged as “dirty” passing hands from one person to another several times per day may increase the infection rate.

The Central bank has ordered all the banks receiving cash to disinfect it before re-allocating it to the clients. Banknotes undergo ultraviolet and high temperature treatment. They are then stored for a period of 7 to 14 days depending on the region or city they originate from, before they can be redistributed to the public.

In addition, all banknotes from high-risk areas such as hospitals and fresh produce markets will be subject to special treatment and will not be redistributed after disinfection.

Inter-provincial cash transfers have also been suspended in order to minimize the circulation of cash in the most affected areas.

The Central bank has strengthened its cash circulation management in order to ensure their safe use. Therefore, special measures have been put in place to provide new banknotes in Hubei region. The institution urgently allocated 4 billion yuan (525 million euros) in new banknotes for the city of Wuhan.

Alipay and WeChat Pay to battle against Coronavirus

Customers using Alipay/WeChat Pay for checkout

Since several years, the preferred way of payment in China has shifted from cash or card to mobile wallet. The  e-wallets giants, Alipay and WeChat Pay, are used by more than 2 thirds of the Chinese population, which represents more than 1 billion people. 

Amid of the chaos caused by Coronavirus, mobile payment have become vital to the fight against the epidemic. In order to control the transmission of the virus, Chinese government has encouraged payments via Alipay and WeChat Pay.. Customers only have to scan the merchant's QR code without touching any object, which reduces the risk of infection, unlike exchanging banknotes, coins or credit card payment.

Coronavirus has become a catalyst for changing consumer behaviour in affected countries. After the epidemic outbreak, it was observed that the transactions in face-to-face retail sector are decreasing, while e-commerce and online services is enjoying fast growth. According to data from QuestMobile, Chinese people’s average time spent on the mobile internet increased from 6.1 hours a day in January, to 7.3 hours in February. The trending sectors include online education, remote work, food delivery, logistics and e-commerce.  In addition, there has been a significant decrease in cash and credit card payments, whereas, more transactions through electronic wallets or contactless payment systems have been registered.

Source 1 : Question & Answer about Coronavirus (World Health Organisation)

https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses

Source 2 : Press conference of the Joint Defence and Control Mechanism of the Council of State(15/02/2020)

http://www.gov.cn/fuwu/2020-02/15/content_5479230.htm

Source 3: Photos

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202002/07/WS5e3cf3d3a310128217275cb1.html