Novel coronavirus detected on banknotes?

A rumor spread online said people should avoid using cash because the novel coronavirus had been detected on the surface of many banknotes.

As a carrier, a banknote has a tiny possibility of being contaminated by the virus, and the probability for the virus' survival on a banknote also is low, said Zheng Xiaoyan, an epidemiologist at the Fuzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Thus there is a rather small possibility of virus transmission via a banknote," he said. So far, major infection sources are patients contracting novel coronavirus pneumonia, Zhang said.