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South Korea is one of the countries with a high number of cases of Coronavirus or COVID-19 with 6,248 infected cases. Due to the rapidly increasing of people being affected by the virus, travel ban to South Korea has been imposing by almost a hundred countries around the world.

As for precaution by the local government of South Korea, its central bank Bank of Korea (BOK) had been quarantining its banknote for two weeks and even burned some of it to lessen the possibility of more outbreaks.

"For all cash coming to the central bank from local banks, the Bank of Korea will keep it in a safe for two weeks, given that the virus usually dies out after nine days," a BOK official told Reuters.

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BOK said that they are putting their currency in a high-heat laundering process before releasing it and adding it to the circulation. It is said that the virus dies in high temperature and similar viruses like SARS emerges during cold weather and then dies during the hot season.

South Korean COVID-19 cases are increasing so I think it's a good thing to do to lessen the possibility of spreading the virus. Although by this, the virus won't be totally stopped from spreading but this is a big help especially for countries highly affected by the virus.

Paper money is one of the things we are always holding and it is also one of the things that has a lot of bacteria because money is being passed from one person to another. So when we hold money, always make sure to wash and clean your hands before touching your face to keep ourselves protected.

Superstitions what? Where exactly did the superstition come from? Anything the virus touch could normally become a possible source of infection, so them taking precautionary measures isn't anything wrong imo. Even if it may not be the main way of transmission, it is still completely possible. Just like how it is said in various articles, the virus could rest itself on armrests of airplanes and the like, so why can't money be a possible one?

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/coronavirus-spread-protect-200130115539072.html (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/01/coronavirus-spread-protect-200130115539072.html)
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html)

It's kind of a good way to prevent it, but without any major cleanups around the countries involved, it'd only be a temporary stop-gap or something similar. It'd still spread, but probably not through the banknotes released by them. Plus, the banknotes are in a sense, just paper. They can just reprint it, they are the banks after all. And it won't affect their economy whatsoever because the replaced banknotes were burned, so it couldn't be used anymore.

In contrast to Vietnam, which is considered to have successfully stemmed the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The South Korean government is a country that has failed to stem the spread of corona and even its government is considered too slow to respond to this outbreak. Even the news that was highlighted was when the first death of Corona victims in South Korea and a doubling of Corona sufferers in South Korea, the Korean president was having a party with celebrities.

The failure of the government to deal with the spread of the corona outbreak led the community to sign the South Korea president's impeachment petition due to poor handling of public health disasters.

Regarding the burning of banknotes to erase traces of the coronavirus, I am a little doubtful, why only in part and what are the criteria for the money being burned? So I think burning money is based more on other factors, not because of the coronavirus. From the news above the heating process is a routine standard for every money that enters the central bank of Korea, while the additional treatment is to quarantine the money for two weeks assuming the coronavirus attached to the money will dead for nine days.

Without further debating that cash is one of the media for the transmission of the coronavirus, the Korean government should make regulations to conduct non-cash transactions to avoid spreading the virus through physical money.

I think that these articles greatly exaggerate the ability of this virus to adapt. I have read in many recent scientific articles that the virus is weak for material circles in the sense that it dies after a short period of contact with surfaces and thus the way the virus is transmitted through contact or paper money is considered small.

The action taken by the Central Bank is only a precaution and one of the measures that is taken to try to reduce the number of injuries and avoid infection.

Even some citizens here in my country have been pointing the poor actions of the president regarding the virus. But I don't know if it should the president to be blame about everything because it's really hard for East Asian countries like Korea and Japan to prevent it since they are close to China. But it saddens me how rapid it spread in Korea. I have just recently saw a Korean article saying that there are now 7,041 case of COVID-19 in Korea with 47 deaths.

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I'm aware that through money it does not mean that the virus will spread. The virus spread through close contact but since South Korea is trying to prevent more cases and going through extra precaution as what I have also stated, it's just a way to lessen the possibility of spreading the virus. It's like a part of their actions to ensure the cleanliness of the surrounding. Even some places, they tried to clean it for safety so does disinfecting paper money since hundreds of people can hold one single paper money.

The country of South Korea today are making a lot of changes to their rules because of the virus spreading right now all over the world that was a good choice that they are now going to burn their money to stop spreading the virus because it is airborne that anyone touches those infected object or things and you will touch your face, mouth or nose. Also, they want to avoid the spreading of this virus. It is the time now for the real use of cryptocurrency or the bitcoin because it is faster to transact and also there is no contact included for both parties of the sender and receiver by that we can now freely pay all the things we need without any interaction to other people.

The SK must be quite desperate that they'd take any steps to ensure that the possibility of the virus spreading would be reduced, even if the chances of it reducing are low. Not to blame them though, as one of the countries that border around China, they'd be one of the countries who would most likely be hit by the impacts of the virus and the mass migration of the Chinese residents who COULD have been infected.

A step, but temporary nonetheless. The money they cleaned would or could possibly be infected one day. I don't really know how strong the attachment of the virus is towards objects once it leaves the body of the person, but since they are taking precautions about it, it must be possible, even if it has low chances.

If this measure really helps for stopping the coronavirus spearing,then other countries like China and Italy should do it as well.
Burning paper money isn't a big loss for the fiat money supply.Printing and production of new paper money is really cheap.People should be told to touch paper money with gloves and everything will be fine.
I wonder why there are still people in this forum,who are so over-hyped that the coronavirus will destroy the fiat economy and make cryptocurrency prices go to the moon.This simply isn't happening right now.

Maybe not burn, but rather quarantine and subject to high-heat laundering process as mentioned from the OP. Though printing would really be a good alternative if that process would take so much resources. Better replace it with new ones, at least you know for sure that it is not affected by the virus. Since South Korea is on the top countries with high number of deaths, the reason of burning especially coming from the hard-hit areas of Daegu and Gyeongsan cities is very reasonable.

it's sad that knowing that there is a renewable outbreak, namely corona, hopefully this outbreak can be handled by every country affected and assisted by the world health agency so that it can pass and be resolved quickly so as not to infect more.

I agree with about that what is feared by South Korea that the impact other than human contact, it could be that the biggest impact is certainly the paper money used by the transaction. because it is very large that the transaction has changed hands all the time and we cannot know whether there might be someone who has been affected by the virus also spread through transactions with paper money.
the Korean government has taken the right action and hopefully this outbreak can be quickly handled.

Superstitious people are panaroid, they’re exaggerating by burning paper money, being a civilised nation one should never easily resort into open burning, may be they’re not civilised as we thought, and it’s very gentle to called them superstitious, because they’re publicly announcing to burn the virus to dead, and the virus that barely kill a dozen of people, and mainly a FUD attempt to downplay some economy.

Countries should probably consider the plastic notes too. People could always wash them when they get home.
I  wonder why the plastic ones are not that popular. Guess they are easy to counterfeit, right? Can't the makers attach things in the plastic notes to make them hard to counterfeit?

Whats the point??? There is no evidence paper money can transmit the virus. It is person to person contact. Burning cash is a hysterical thing to do!! Everyone making mountains out of molehills about this Coronavirus stuff. The common flu will kill more people!!! People freak out just because there is no vaccine, thats all.

Because they think that the virus will be in the paper bill for quite some time and a person who has the virus but still doesn't knew about it can cobtaminate the paper and pass it to other people but even if the virus really gets into the paper it will die quickly but to lessen the risk they have done that which i think is good enough but of course having it quarantined is better for they will not need to burn it but takes time to do, after all it is the South Korea's way of handling virus and i think it is good rather than have none.

Some may accuse you of things you didn't even think about... so it just better to let governments/people do what they believe is safe for them...I honestly hope it works
You tell friends the right way to minimize the issue, they call you a bigots or starts playing some childish trolling games on you.

The virus cannot survive even for a day on paper money. Birning it is an overkill.

I believe this is one of the attempts to curb the flow of cash and paint a certain picture in people's minds: "cash is dangerous, it can be used for money laundering, drug and terrorist operations, allows people to avoid taxes and is dirty. You can even get sick from using it! Use your credit card instead!"
News coming from Australia, where soon people will not be able to do cash transactions over 10k AUD, seem to confirm what the world banking is going for: a cashless society where every transaction is signed with your personal ID.

I have no idea why you would consider burning to remove any traces of the virus as superstitious. They literally stated it in their report. Additionally, they did not burn all of it, but some of it. They quarantined the others and let it go undertreatment via ultraviolet or heat treatments. They're doing this officially and scientifically as they can. I have no idea why burning cash = superstitious when it comes out of your mind.

And there's also no evidence that it can't transfer it through paper money. Rather than letting it become a risk because of ignorance that they chose, wouldn't they choose the safest option? Lives are at stake here and I hardly understand why they would opt to choose the choice that could potentially increase the number of victims their country already has.

My concern now here on OP's post is the burning of cash. I guess maybe that is because of affected people who earlier made contact with the cash. But the question is, is it the only thing that contact was made of? How were they able to know the particular cash that contact was made of. I really think burning of cash isn't a way forward if the virus don't survive long outside its environment.

This is true (even though corona virus isn't bacterial) and S. Korea is probably doing the right thing with this move, although it could just be for the optics.  People probably should be avoiding bank notes and coins for the time being and just use plastic of their smartphones.

Anyway, even with over 6000 cases of corona virus infection, that's still a pretty low rate.  The mortality rate is likely well below that, too.  Anybody know how many people died in S. Korea as a result of coronavirus?  I don't know where to get that data from, but I'd be interested to know.  I still think this situation is being blown out of proportion by the media--I'm not saying it's not a serious issue, just that corona virus doesn't seem to be any deadlier than seasonal flu, and it looks like it's killing the same at-risk population (very young, very old, and those with compromised immune systems).

When the title purposely highlight burn the cash, you didn’t really expect people to not make any remark on their decision making ability, I think it’s intentionally trying to pull attention by quarantine and further burn it, of course we should just ignore attention seeking sensational article which trying to include click bait and catchphrase.

Another stupid idea that only increases the panic and wastes money.

If cash is supposed to contract viruses then sick people should burn all their clothes, their cars and other things they touched. Why nobody is recommending burning tissues and masks after use but they want to burn cash?

Based on a Korean article, the recent number of cases I know is that there are 7,313 cases of Corona virus and 50 deaths. But the thing is, there's also cases were patients have recovered and been discharged. There's a 130 patients for that.



The number of cases is rapidly increasing. As you can see when I posted this topic, it was just 6,248 cases then it increases to 7,041. But now, after checking the news, the total cases are now 7,313.

One of life's great pleasures is going to one of those Coinstar machines and feeding in vast amounts of coins. I can't think of much that's more satisfying.

However the most striking thing about the process is the colour of your hand after sifting through all of those coins. You finish up with a thick layer of grey grime. That often makes me wonder.

This seems like a perfectly sensible move to me. However it does nothing to stop spreadage once it's out of their control.



There's nothing else in daily life that people handle on a near constant basis that has been handled by countless other unknowns. And they're heating cash, not burning it.

indeed according to the news which is the fastest spreading media, because it changes hands quickly to various people. if so, it is also useful to transact using crypto, because it can reduce direct contact with others, so that it can inhibit the development of the corona virus, besides that it seems the government is also closing 2 cities in south korea, to suppress the spread of the virus

thats a one wierd news i just read there  . burning money really ? damn  .  im against with it because money is hard to find and they are only burning it , why cant they just give it to the poor  .   they are only over acting  imo   . 

not only money but all things can be a carrier of bacteria  ( only ) but will be easily worned off once we wash our hands properly  . the real one that is risky is when you face to face with people and talk to them without wearing a masks  . that is the best way for the virus to penetrate inside our body   .

I dont think that this can be a good news for a crypto

This will be another reason for countries to switch to the national digital currency. Paper money has always been and remains a carrier of various infections. And now, after the coronavirus outbreak , this is becoming relevant again. But South Korea and other countries do not yet have a ready solution to this problem.

Unless you intentionally use marked banknotes, transactions in banknotes are hardly traceable - this is why most of the money laundering and crime-related activities are using banknotes, not cryptocurrencies as a narration of some mass media claim. And wiping out banknotes and coins is, on one hand, eliminating this money laundering potential, but as well can easily become the most efficient way of invigilation of yours (or even enforcing changes for your life - authorities could require you to pay higher health insurance because in last year you have visited fastfood restaurant 40 times, while nation median was 8 - and as we know, fastfood can be unhealthy for many of us).

As for me, these are too drastic measures. To begin with, it would be necessary to treat them with ultraviolet and ozone, and check whether the coronavirus survives after such treatment. If survives, then only the burning of all infected banknotes.

This is a temporary situation that will probably pass away soon because the hot summers are coming anyway and the virus will not be able to live long with this weather so they have to only wait a bit longer and wait for it to end, I am sure in 2 months there will be almost no cases. Plus lets be honest banknotes are not a big part of society anymore, it is still something but it is not a big deal as much as it used to be.

We all keep our money in our banks and we have debit cards and bank apps on our phones and many other stuff like that which means we do not use that much cash anymore. I swear to god I use probably %10 of all my money in cash and rest %90 would be usually either payment from my app or payment with my debit card and that has been for couple of years now.

It could be the case but, what about the traditional markets around the globe that are still using cash in the first place. South Korea should not have been quarantining cash if it does not have use anymore. Like in our country, cash is still used by a lot of people especially in the rural hometown wherein physical currency is still widely used for various transactions.

I could say that cash still have its unique uses especially in my place that makes it still usable and popular.

You can find the latest data about the coronavirus from the official report released by the UNO,

https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200306-sitrep-46-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=96b04adf_2

I don't know how effective will it be to the S.Korea by burning the notes to control the virus but it is the second-largest affected country after China with more than 6k plus positive peoples

The internet did it! I did a research on the Corona virus 2019 and found out that this is a weak virus but can be spread easily. The World Health Organization declares a 3.4% death out of all confirmed cases globally which is normally low compare to other virus that we have dealt in the past, although we are still on its early stages. The contact for paper money might be small but is possible, the virus can stay long in a surface like money or tables that is why it is advisable to wear a mask.

Well I find it a very smart move for the Central Bank to lessen the potential spread of the virus through money as it is basically the handful stuff.

It will be easier for them to burn the bank notes and create one than scanning it one by one with UV. They are considering to burn the bank notes from their local banks for pre-emptive measure securing the mass. Money is just a regulated paper with a value, it does not contain any value at all. It would be a lot harder if their are using commodity money.  I guess we should start on not only wearing a face mask but also a hand gloves. better to be safe than sorry.

I've heard that China is doing the same to avoid further infection, they are burning cash if they think that it's already been affected. At least South Korea and all the country are doing their best to fight the spread of Covid-19.

WHO has already gave a statement that we should focus and take this virus very serious. What I like in the said article is that the virus can die which means there will really be a solution coming.

Their are times that the virus would be in a cash or any things that the virus could be in touch, And so that's why they want to burn it.
Actually it depends on them if they want to burn it. So must better to be aware on it because of this many people have cases of a Coronavirus on that country.

Seriously not a big deal if you ask me as long as they wash it but burning? Really? Why would you feel the need to burn it? I mean we are talking about burning paper money just so it doesn't spread virus around to people. You can literally wash it on high heat and/or you can literally reprint it if you have it because you have the exact same technology and send it back to community as well.

On top of that you can burn as much as you want but that is not going to change the fact that there could be corona infected people out there who are touching money in circulation right now, so why would that stop now? They will continue with that, what will south Korea do? Burn ALL the cash in their nations? That is not a chance and they can't do that so it is futile attempt.

I guess the notion that paper money can spread the virus is one reason why they think that it is the right thing to do at this point as the spread is unstoppable.


Of course, that is why they think that they can burn all their paper money and replace it with a new minted one. I really can't say though it this is going to be an effective method to minimised the spread of the virus.

I think their fiat currency undergoing a form of disinfection is a good move but burning them is not. Don't get me wrong, I understand their reason of doing so but do you guys think it's necessary? Does so called high heat laundering process isn't effective in every single piece of paper money? I'm getting a little bit skeptical about that because the difference between old and new money is not so significant. I'm not an expert, just a curious reader out here :).

I just hope this is not the only precautionary measures they do. Yeah! Money is dirty but there are still dirtier things to it such as door knobs/hand railings and public rest rooms. I hope they also make actions regarding this matter.

Its a good move for S. Korea government, this can prevent the virus for spreading further. I dont know if the virus can be transmitted through paper money but if it does then its a decision for the sake of their people. Here in our country the number of infected people are less than 50 but sadly each day its increasing thus the government are doing their best to stop it from spreading.

Well yes but its been few months since this virus started last year and up to now its not yet under control and it became a global problem. It will surely pass but for now we have to follow what the government want us to do to protect ourselves.

Of course, they can burn at least all the cash in the country, but such actions in any case will entail negative consequences, because even in such a fairly technologically advanced country as Korea, there is still a need for cash, the use of coins is also not an option, nominal values ​​are too low + again, the area for bacteria.

I can’t understand why to burn money if the coronavirus has a certain period of incubation period.  It is enough to withstand money in a certain environment for two weeks and the virus will die by itself.
Now, if Korea switches completely to cryptocurrency, then nobody can get infected with paper banknotes.

Many countries have bigger effect from Corona virus and look most worries when my country faced the same cases with Corona virus, I think best way how to stop it never give chance for people come from China coming in our country and stop for them before many people got Corona virus.

I think this is the time for bitcoin and cryptocurrencies to be approved in south korea or in other countries because the only reason why south korea started to quarantine and to burn their cash is due to Corona Virus, so if people in south korea had been using cryptocurrencies they don't need to quarantine cryptocurrency because it could only be access and transact through online.

The government is thinking about the people there at least , cash is something that will spread the virus way faster than any person or anything. This could cause problem for the whole economy , more people with Corona Virus, more and more money the government would loose as a whole , therefore burning the cash might seem as a bad idea but it is indeed the best possible option. 

Now it's time for people to use the online currencies and their credit and debit cards ..

People should know that viruses aren't living things, just rogue proteins capable of creating multiple copies of themselves in a host cell to propagate and multiply, causing chaos within the host's body. Usually, these proteins denature or aren't usable/capable of multiplying after a few hours due to their environment, and perhaps SoKor failed to prevent the spread of the virus due to mishandling of the scenario or just plainly underestimating how infectious the disease is. Burning banknotes will not do so much if the virus already spread throughout the country, and people are still roaming freely without knowing that they are already a carrier of the said disease.

I'm really not impressed by them keeping their money circulation tight up to the extent that they have to burn their own currency. There has to be more than that than just the virus itself.

Will be there are have many investor of bitcoin get quarantines? I think will be positive way because they will lost connection with mobile phone during quarantines and forget for selling their bitcoin assets, but could give positive to make bitcoin on the top price.

I pray a cure comes out quickly for the treatment of the infected people, while scientist are working hard to find a vaccine for this deadly Virus, it would have been good for the government to encourage people to start using Cryptocurrency it may not be bitcoin since they always bash bitcoin, they can adopt a stable coin and world with bitcoin developers.

The virus is spreading even in my tropical country, it can survive under the heat.

If the government says thier banknotes won't have value anymore, it won't have a value and can be burned. Its how easy it is for the government to declare they're nada. But its not right to just do that, there is no real news about what the government gave to the owners in exchange for these banknotes.  Stablecoin?

Right from time it’s very important that after touching money you should wash your hands and keep them clean before touching any other thing, like your skin.

Cash circulates around and is touched by a lot of people, so it’s not good to touch cash and not wash your hands. They have really taken a good action by quarantining cash and burning them, that will be very good. And now is the best time for people to start making use of cashless means of transactions like cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), mobile banking apps, PayPal, WeChat, Payoneer and other electronic payment methods, that way there wouldn’t be any contact with anyone.

Yes but not with so much heat, As I read through some articles the corona virus we have now cannot live more than 60 centigrade. But our body temperature, they can support the virus.

Won't have any value? As far as I know South Korea are burning cash just because it is from local banks which is prone to inhabited by the virus and so burning is the only way to eliminate it. It is easy for the government to do this but this is an extra effort which I want to commend, this is an added measure to prevent the virus from spreading from hand-in-hand contact.

Aside from the fast rate at which the virus spread, I still think the rate of causing death is low compare to some other pandemic such as the ebola. You can not take superstitious beliefs away from people and this is the reason why there will be more suffering during this period. I am very sure the WHO will have the most effective way of dealing with money suspected to be harboring the virus other than burning a huge amount of money. It is insane and I hope this virus ish stop soon

I think the main reason why they are burning their money because of what I have read that the virus can also spread because of the money, I don't really know how that could happen but I think that is the main reason why they are burning the money since the virus is really spreading and it is now a pandemic disease wherein it is spreading all around the world. But it is indeed a good idea to approved the usage of cryptocurrency as of now for them to make the transaction even if they are not holding physical money (fiat).
The virus maybe can stay into the money that is why it is really good to wash your hand before holding money. It is just for your own sake, the South Korea's idea is indeed good so the money that is carrying the virus cannot spread and infect their citizen.

They were saying the Covid19 can mutate itself and can adopt whichever they can. There was an incident explained by someone I've seen on youtube where Covid19 affected an animal and then pass on to a human. And this means that it can live to mutate in any condition the environment therein, this is really a hybrid virus that can wipe out the people with poor health condition.

I read about this news but I'm really sure they get the wrong anticipation. Cash is not the way the virus spread but if you eat from wild animal, their organ and blood already infected with virus and our antibody can't defeat it. South Korea take respond even look's over but I believe they have reason. All victim should quarantine to get treatment and let's hope they can heal fast.

Most effective country in the world for attacking Corona virus is South Korea, we can see how many their people keep safety after Corona virus attack around the world and their people could be getting well with short time, now day by day just few people in South Korea get corona virus because many people have been well.

When the corona virus starts, it is rapidly spread all over the world. In the past 4 months the total number of case is 309,081 and it was very upsetting. The primary reason of rapidly spreading of virus is crowded places and tangible money. That's why the South Korea burns their cash to prevent them to be one of the infected cases, because tangible money can pass the virus through giving them personally. In the crisis that we faced the digital money is a must, because it help us to prevent of spreading the virus through using digital money in those online transactions.

What they did is good because they managed to stop the spreading of the virus. Their government are aware that any formed of cash can also be a carrier of the virus that can infect many people. I think it is really the best time to use virtual currency that can reduce the risks of other people exposing to the virus and can lessen the community transmission.

For 5 years now I haven’t actually used paper money, it’s easier for me to pay with credit or debit cards. I fully support the paper assets quarantine policy of South Korea, as these measures are aimed primarily at the safety and well-being of people. The situation with COVID-19 will push the governments of the countries to switch from paper assets to electronic or crypto assets

This is a perfect measure in making sure that the further spread of the virus will help in making sure the well-being of people. This pandemic has quickly posed a threat to the supply of fiat currency in many countries because it can be a carrier for the virus, but I am sure that there will come a time that it will be resolved and everything will go back to normal.

It was just a right action to be done although it worth a sacrifice of burning banknotes, but at least it will somehow lessen the spread of virus for it is believe that virus can be transferred through passing of paper money from one and another hand. It is just a precautionary measure done to keep the citizens safe. But in reality, based on what I know, burning of banknotes are illegal since it is a national government property but since there is a call and right reason for doing such and the government have ordered such action, then it is worth a try and sacrifice.

Aside from that, we citizens, specially those that are not residing in South Korea where their paper money undergoes sanitation, we must always do sanitize or wash our hands whenever we are receiving paper money to ensure our safety. It is the least we could do now that there are lots of ways that the virus can possibly be transferred.

Well i see in the news that the virus will also scattered or pass one person to other because we are using physical money specially through coins it is more safe if we dont used money this time because of the virus, south korea is doing a good action to prevent virus to scattered that was their way of preventing or saving lives because if they still used fiat the virus will not gone easily.

But we all know that the paper money circulates faster than it can.

Due to the velocity of money, it can go to different people while it contains a virus.

So even if the virus are weakened in a particular surface, it can still infect other people due to the transferring of paper money from one person to another immediately. Don't be too confident with that statement, if the possibility of getting the virus from the paper money is small, then there is still a possibility. Don't underestimate the virus because they can really spread faster than you think.

This makes sense, but the measures are still quite strange. Why not to just ban temporary the use of paper money? I am sure that South Korea has a sufficiently advanced banking, and that all people (the vast majority) can pay on the card/through the phone are contactless methods. Am i right?

As long as you can wash your hand after using physical money, that will not be a problem because you can take care of your hand from anything you touch. Using digital money can prevent them from physical contact or touching the other with your hand so you can make sure your hand clean. That is one preventive way to avoid the infection to many people.

Adopting Precautionary measures are all welcome just to stop the spread of the virus like on South Korea by burning bank notes then if that's effective to lessen the spread, then so be it that's their decision and suffer consequences in the end if there's any. Every country has their own protocols and mandates on how to end this pandemic and with that it should be respected as long as its effective. Proper hygiene  will always be the best chance not to be contaminated with the virus when going outside and also before getting inside our houses.

I guess now it is the time to go cashless because then there would be many benefits of it other than preventing the spread of the coronavirus. For example Sweden is almost a cashless country with almost the entire population using either card to pay for their purchases or doing digital transactions with PayPal etc. So if every country would go cashless then I bet the spread of COVID and communicable diseases will drastically reduce. The step that South Korea has taken will benefit their country now and benefit the World in the future. In the past also a news article was there in which it was mentioned that China is washing its banknotes and disinfecting them but burning them is way cheaper.

I appreciate what the South Korean government and the Bank of Korea (BOK) have done by making their currency in high heat laundry process,
so that when it is released to the residents of South Korea it will not spread the corona virus. This is an idea that must be carried out by other
countries as well, especially for countries where the spread of the virus is high. And this is also the reason we have to reduce the use of paper
money, which is paper money very susceptible to bacteria. My suggestion is to start using digital currency to make payments, so you can prevent
the spread of the corona virus.

Cashless is the way to go. Developed countries had already been cashless long before coronavirus started and so it will be the route to go for South Korea. As far as I know, China is already cashless society before coronavirus that is why they weren't also affected in the way how many countries that are not adopting cashless transaction. Only certain number of cities that are still using bank notes in China.

Covid-19 has made the world see one of the many advantages using digital currency but I think the time is not really ready for now in the use of bitcoin because of many issues from volatile to internet use and many country don't have good internet system.

I agree to that, and its doable as internet / mobile banking is not that hard anymore. The
government can easily cancel the used of paper money
It will help conserving the printed money instead of being burned it can be used after this
pandemic virus find the right vaccines.
Though we don't know what's behind this decision as ling as they are doing everything to
prevent the spread of this virus and
trying to conserve life to the extent of burning their cash / paper currency.

Since the coronavirus bacteria die in the open air within a few hours, there is no point in taking any harsh measures against paper money. they can be taken and isolated for a while. But the procedures that the South Korean Central Bank conducts with its national currency have been carried out before. The central bank overcame the national currency at high temperatures and kept notes for a certain time at a temperature of 42 degrees, thus disinfecting paper money.

Sure you can make it all digital, but remember the old people as well, they are not good with technology. It is really quite difficult to live after a certain age, and I am not saying difficult to manage digital payments, it is difficult to "live" after a while, they are just surviving rest of their days, I have a grandparent that is like that right now but she is lucky that my mother is taking care of them.

Hence, it is not really that easy to handle non-cash stuff, when you are saying stuff like "we should all be in crypto by now" you are forgetting that these people are also the same people that fail to withdraw cash from ATM's, so to expect them to use a mobile phone would be insane. It means burning cash is still valid as long as you print new ones on the same amount.

Yes, you do not even need to take and cancel paper money - this is quite a natural process for me. I don't remember the last time I held coins or bills in my hands - I even pay with a card or transfer to the seller's account at the weekend market or fairs.
You will see after another 15-20 years and the use of paper money in everyday life will cause the same perplexity as an attempt to pay with a watch for a purchase in a supermarket 5-6 years ago! I believe and hope so.

The problem at this time is that not everyone is equipped to handle the digital currency in all countries as many countries are undecided and made completely legal. But after this pandemic we are clear that digital payment will eb the key in future and for this crypto will be playing a vital role to resolve this issue of paper money. Now how does government take this opportunity and ensure the smooth transition happens it will depend on it.

South Korea is one of the countries that best contained the coronavirus. It is a country that has a great technological development and policies. They implemented rapid, aggressive and efficient prevention measures that are still being carried out to prevent the virus from dominating the country.
The Bank of Korea is giving blockchain technology a top priority and has announced a 10-year plan for its development. CBDC is coming soon.
I think that more countries should follow suit and immigrate to blockchain. It will not be easy for some countries but the attempt must be made.

https://beincrypto.com/south-koreas-central-bank-focuses-on-blockchain-and-cbdcs-in-new-ten-year-plan/ (https://beincrypto.com/south-koreas-central-bank-focuses-on-blockchain-and-cbdcs-in-new-ten-year-plan/)

Why would they burn the currency if they can kill the virus before circulating, currency is not safe to handle during a pandemic but that does not mean that the central bank should burn the currencies when they can do things much safely to contain the virus. 

 I accept every bit of it as it is the most hygienic aspect as it is travelling long distance and who knows which patient is handling those notes before it reached you.

Maybe they think in that way it will reduce the number of infected cases in their country, and I think it helped. Because we all know that money is one of the dirtiest things and can be the carrier of the said or any viruses. They just showed that human life is still more important than anything else.

thats sick . are they too bright to think of that idea and they are the only one that think of it because others dont burned down thier fiats but they can be able to control the virus.  is south korea rich enough that they are only burning thier money ?  . its funny and proudful at the same time because they represent the saying that money is not important  . money is dirty because it circulates anywhere but like any other things money can be dis infected too with some of the know methods that i saw online. no need to burn it

Indeed. I think it is inappropriate for South Korea to burn their cash or real money to prevent the massive cases of the coronavirus because they are not wealthy enough to do such a thing, and most countries affected by the pandemic are having trouble facing their economic problem. I think it is much better if they sanitize or disinfect their cash, instead of burning it down to ashes.

Bad idea carried out by the South Korean country by burning their cash due to Corona virus, it even makes it look more complicated.
In my opinion, the method is a bit excessive, there are still easier, simple and effective ways. Can be sprayed with disinfectant spray
for their cash, will kill all the bacteria in the cash. Much better than choosing to burn cash. Even though most Korean people the south
has high awareness, so the government shouldn't have to burn cash. It's enough to order the citizens of South Korea to spray it disinfectant
of all the money they have. Or the government directs its citizens to use more digital payments to conduct financial transactions. So it
can reduce the circulation of cash indirectly.

It was really a serious matter for South Korea to make such a big move of burning some of their cash to somehow create a way to stop the virus because it is said that virus can be transferred by physical contact which includes passing of paper money. For some or many it would look a bad idea to burn money since base on what I know, paper money is a national property and it is illegal to burn out money unless it is an old design or those are fake or needed to be phase out. But since it is for their citizens safety, it is reasonable to do such act.

It just shows that the government have a really great concern on its people that it even sacrifices their paper money just to somehow lessen the spread of virus. But I think instead of doing that, there is still an alternative way like sanitizing your hands whenever you hold money which is a must thing to do because even without the virus, germs and bacteria are being carried out by paper money because it is being used and transferred from many hands of the public.

The government of South Korea is doing their job very well because they know that the virus can spread more through excessive cash flowing in their economy. I heard that most of the citizen of South Korea is now preferred to use digital payment system because they are aware that in this method, they can easily avoid another threat of the Covid 19. There are a lot of unique cases where they do not have close contact in any infected person but they got infected and many researchers have been identified that it is because of fiat money that been used by infected person.

It was really much better if the government is responsible for doing that. After a person deposits his money into the bank, then his savings should be in a digital form, so that the paper money can be burned without wasting it. You just waste the material but not the value of it.

In that case, they should engage in a more technological market where they will perform transactions using only digital money.

That should be their approach towards this Covid-19 pandemic, instead of paper money, they should allow the regulation of only digital money, so that cryptocurrency can be also promoted in their country.

Money is the number one thing which susceptible to viruses and can pass to other people easily that's why maybe South Korea want to burn their money. But what happen to their economy and how they can make transaction or buy from the other country if they don't have fiat money anymore? I can't imagine a country without fiat money,if how they live and how they can get their necessities. Or everything will become free from their government. They are really rich country if ever.