The Bank of Korea "Stores Incoming Currency for 2 Weeks... Preventing the Spread of COVID-19"

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunbyeol Kim] The Bank of Korea announced on the 24th that it will store currency received at the Bank of Korea in a vault for two weeks to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) through banknotes.

Currency that comes to the Bank of Korea through financial institutions will be stored in a vault for at least two weeks, considering the virus survival period. Afterward, damaged and usable banknotes will be separated using a sorting machine, followed by an automatic banknote packaging process.

During the packaging process, the Bank of Korea stated that the banknotes are exposed to high heat of 150 degrees Celsius for 2 to 3 seconds, and the internal temperature of the packaging reaches 42 degrees Celsius, so sterilization effects can be expected. COVID-19 is understood to be significantly weakened in infectivity at temperatures above 60 degrees Celsius.

Additionally, when issuing new currency to financial institutions, the Bank of Korea plans to provide banknotes that have completed the above process or completely unused new notes to regions where the spread of COVID-19 is severe.

When general customers exchange money at the Bank of Korea's currency exchange counters, new notes will be supplied first, and once banknote sterilizers are distributed in the future, the banknotes will be disinfected as much as possible before being accepted.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.