Euro banknotes do not pose a particular risk of coronavirus infection when touched. This statement was made by the famous Italian economist, member of the Executive Committee of the European Central Bank, Fabio Panetta, Il Messaggero reported.

Panetta presented the results of a number of independent studies by European laboratories, which found that the coronavirus survived much better on flat surfaces made of steel and metal, than on cotton based material. He also recalled that the euro banknotes were printed on pure cotton fiber paper.

European labs showed that the survival rate of coronaviruses is "10 to 100 higher" on a stainless steel surface, like a door handle, than on euro banknotes in the first few hours after contamination, RTE reported.

"Other analyses indicate that it is much more difficult for a virus to be transferred from porous surfaces such as cotton banknotes than from smooth surfaces like plastic," Panetta said in a blog post.

"Overall, banknotes do not represent a particularly significant risk of infection compared with other kinds of surface that people come into contact with in daily life," Panetta wrote.

Earlier it was reported that the coronavirus could be preserved on a variety of surfaces, including plastic and asphalt for three to four days.