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Disaster & Management

Mumbai avoids brunt of cyclone that barrels into India’s west coast

Cyclone Nisarga also did not cause any major damage on the southern coast of Gujarat on Wednesday afternoon and evening following landfall near Alibaug in Maharashtra. The Gujarat government had evacuated over 63,700 people from coastal areas of eight districts and 18 teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and six teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) were deployed for rescue operations.

Flight operations resumed at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. Arrivals and departures were suspended at 2:30 pm due to strong crosswinds induced by Cyclone Nisarga.

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Cyclone Nisarga to disrupt India’s Mumbai financial hub

The second cyclone in the country in a fortnight will carry heavy rain and wind speeds as high as 120 kilometers per hour (75 miles). It is seen hitting the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat Wednesday afternoon and will be intense enough to damage communication, electricity poles, trees, and plantations, according to the India Meteorological Department.

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British watchdog enlists 8 insurers in pandemic test case of Business Interruption cover

“We expect the test case to provide guidance for the interpretation of many other business insurance policies that are not in the representative sample,” the FCA said.

The eight insurers asked to take part in the court case were Lloyd’s of London insurers Hiscox, Arch, Argenta and MS Amlin, as well as RSA, QBE, Zurich and Ecclesiastical, the FCA said in a statement.

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Hurricanes may cause more pain for pandemic-hit insurers

“What we’ve seen over the past couple of years is an increase of (storm) losses from a frequency and severity perspective,” said Susan Fallon, global head of Property at Zurich Insurance Group.

“There’s an expectation we will see increased rates.”

Lloyd’s of London this month forecast more than $100 billion in underwriting losses from the pandemic in 2020, with those losses coming before the hurricane season even gets going.

The specialist insurance market said the pandemic losses were similar in size to the loss year of 2005 – when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans – and 2017 – when Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria hit Florida, Puerto Rico and Texas.

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Covid-19 has not changed in terms of transmissibility, severity: WHO expert

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the world is “losing its ability” to use critically important antimicrobial medicines.
Speaking at a virtual press conference on Monday, the WHO chief said that the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increased use of antibiotics, which ultimately will lead to higher bacterial resistance rates, news agency IANS reported.

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