Category:

Disaster & Management

COVID-19: 58% of recovered cases coming from five states

India’s COVID-19 tally of cases mounted to 47,54,356 with 94,372 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 78,586 with 1,114 people succumbing to the infection in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed.

1,114 COVID-19 fatalities have been registered in a span of 24 hours. Maharashtra has reported the maximum number of 391 deaths followed by Karnataka with 94 deaths, whereas Tamil Nadu has reported 76 deaths.

read more

Restaurant dining linked to COVID-19; severe illness less common with GI symptoms

“Masks cannot be effectively worn while eating and drinking, whereas shopping and numerous other indoor activities do not preclude mask use,” researchers said in the report on Friday in the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. “Eating and drinking on-site at locations that offer such options might be important risk factors associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection,” they added.

read more

Vaccine likely in a few months, but life won’t return to normal until end of 2021:Dr. Fauci

“If you’re talking about getting back to a degree of normality which resembles where we were prior to Covid, it’s going to be well into 2021, maybe even towards the end of 2021,” he added.

Nearly 30 U.S. states are reporting downward trends in Covid-19 cases, but the pandemic will likely worsen again, said Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert.

read more

Puri launches framework for cities to inculcate climate-sensitive approach to urban planning

At a virtual event, after launching ”Climate Smart Cities Assessment Framework 2.0”, Puri said, “It is estimated that climate change will impact the Indian GDP by 2-6 per cent on an annual basis. 

“This means that our future development goals and investments will also be severely affected if we do not address climate risks now.”

read more

COVID-19 “not a capital event”, 3% decline in global reinsurance capital in the first half of 2020: Willis Re

Total capital dedicated to the global reinsurance industry was USD 587 billion at 30 June 2020, combined ratio worsened from 94.9% in the first half of 2019 to 104.1%, due to COVID-19 losses which added 11.1 percentage points to combined ratios on average. However, on an underlying basis i.e. normalising COVID-19 and catastrophe losses and excluding prior year reserve development, the combined ratio improved from 100.5% to 98.6%.
James Kent, Global CEO, Willis Re, said: “This half-year analysis shows a reinsurance market understandably in a state of change. While reinsurers have so far resiliently shouldered the combined effects of COVID-19 losses and investment market volatility, underlying profitability remains challenging. Uncertainty therefore remains, particularly over the potential impact of COVID-19 on long-tail lines, which is driving reinsurers to deliver additional improvement in underwriting returns. We expect to see further reinsurance market discipline as well as continued differentiation between regions and clients based on past performance and underlying risk.”

read more

Learned from COVID-19 Pandemic to mitigate the risks of Climate Change?

The work to promote resiliency in the face of climate change must be collective in nature, with the insurance industry having an important role to play. Better risk transfer solutions and a higher take-up rate of insurance across communities means a faster recovery. The insurance industry has an advanced understanding of climate risk and extreme events, and its modelling, analyzing and forecasting capabilities offer vital insights to other participants in the resilience ecosystem, helping them better comprehend the risks, identify potential weaknesses and plot a course toward prevention.

read more