Saudi Arabia quarantines cash to prevent further coronavirus spread

May 22, 2020

To prevent further spread of the coronavirus, Saudi Arabia will quarantine all cash and coins from local and foreign sources for at least two weeks, the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority said this week. 

“We have taken precautionary measures to isolate and sterilize both paper and metal currencies, whether coming from inside or outside the kingdom, by isolating them for a period of 14 days and up to 20 days, depending on where it has come from,” the monetary authority said in a video, according to state-owned Al Arabiya.  

After the isolation period, the currency will then be sorted by machines and returned to circulation. Coins and paper bills deemed unclean or still contaminated will be destroyed. 

Saudi Arabia isn’t the only country to sterilize its cash amid the pandemic. The central banks of South Korea and China did so earlier this year using UV light and heat. 

But experts say banknotes are an unlikely method of transmission. After first warning it “may be possible,” the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week that the novel coronavirus “does not spread easily” on surfaces or objects such as coins or paper money.