AP top cop's note on currency as COVID-19 carrier creates flutter
Amaravati(AP), Apr 16 () A communication from AndhraPradesh's top police officer suggesting coronavirus may spreadthrough currency notes has created a flutter in the state.
In a state with minimal digital transaction, thepossibility of such a "phenomenon" rings "danger bells,"police said.
Though the state police chief's office issued amemorandum to this effect recently to all Superintendents ofPolice, city Commissioners and Range DIGs and Guntur IG, DGP DG Sawang said, "there is no proof or any established evidenceof contamination" by currency notes.
"There is no proof or any established evidence ofcontamination by currency notes of any kind whatsoever in thestate," he told .
He also denied, "first of all" having sent thememorandum but noted "our staff in office have incorporated(it) in one of the many routine messages which are sent on adaily basis to keep alerting units on the ground."
It was just one of the possibilities of catching theinfection, he added.
The memo, however, caused a flutter in the bureaucracy,with IAS officers taking strong exception to it saying itcould trigger "unwanted panic" when the state was fighting thepandemic.
"This is a thoroughly baseless circular without anyscientific thought. Police can't act like an authority untothemselves in such sensitive matters," a senior IAS officerremarked.
The DGP's memo made some interesting suggestions, buthealth authorities monitoring the coronavirus cases round theclock did not corroborate them.
It said people in East Godavari, Krishna and Gunturdistricts contracted the virus though they did not have anytravel history or contact with primary\secondary contacts ofany person who travelled within the country or abroad.
It suggested they might have got infected as they havedone business where cash transaction involving many peoplehappens.
Therefore, currency notes could have been the 'culprit'carrying the virus from infected people, it said.
"This phenomenon rings danger bells in our state," thetop police official's memo said.
Cable TV operators, drinking water suppliers and milkvendors were among those collecting money from multiplecustomers.
Petrol stations, kirana shops, vegetable and fruitvendors and pharmacists also collect money from customers andin the process "may come into contact with contaminatednotes."
Referring to a case in Guntur district, the DGP officesaid medical practitioners who did not have awareness aboutthe virus were treating and collecting money from patients andpossibly lead to infection.
In the light of these, the DGP instructed all policeunit officers to propagate online transactions and ask peopleto accept cash only after "sanitizing themselves and thecurrency notes." DBV SAROH ROH