A communication from Andhra Pradesh's top police officer suggesting coronavirus may spread through currency notes has created a flutter in the state.
In a state with minimal digital transaction, the possibility of such a "phenomenon" rings "danger bells," police said.
Though the state police chief's office issued a memorandum to this effect recently to all Superintendents of Police, city Commissioners and Range DIGs and Guntur IG, DGP D G Sawang said, "there is no proof or any established evidence of contamination" by currency notes.
"There is no proof or any established evidence of contamination by currency notes of any kind whatsoever in the state," he told PTI.
He also denied, "first of all" having sent the memorandum but noted "our staff in office have incorporated (it) in one of the many routine messages which are sent on a daily basis to keep alerting units on the ground."
It was just one of the possibilities of catching the infection, he added.
The memo, however, caused a flutter in the bureaucracy, with IAS officers taking strong exception to it saying it could trigger "unwanted panic" when the state was fighting the pandemic.
"This is a thoroughly baseless circular without any scientific thought. Police can't act like an authority unto themselves in such sensitive matters," a senior IAS officer remarked.
The DGP's memo made some interesting suggestions, but health authorities monitoring the coronavirus cases round the clock did not corroborate them.
It said people in East Godavari, Krishna and Guntur districts contracted the virus though they did not have any travel history or contact with primary\secondary contacts of any person who travelled within the country or abroad.
It suggested they might have got infected as they have done business where cash transaction involving many people happens.
Therefore, currency notes could have been the 'culprit' carrying the virus from infected people, it said.
"This phenomenon rings danger bells in our state," the top police official's memo said.
Cable TV operators, drinking water suppliers and milk vendors were among those collecting money from multiple customers.
Petrol stations, kirana shops, vegetable and fruit vendors and pharmacists also collect money from customers and in the process "may come into contact with contaminated notes."
Referring to a case in Guntur district, the DGP office said medical practitioners who did not have awareness about the virus were treating and collecting money from patients and possibly lead to infection.
In the light of these, the DGP instructed all police unit officers to propagate online transactions and ask people to accept cash only after "sanitizing themselves and the currency notes.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
