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Australia will make it a crime to use coronavirus tracing data for non-health purposes

The federal government has said existing “social distancing” measures will remain until at least mid-May, and that its willingness to relax them will depend on whether people download the smartphone “app” to identify who a person with the illness has had contact with.

The tracing app, which is yet to be released, has raised concerns from legal and privacy advocates who have said the location data it collects may be used by unrelated bodies like law enforcement agencies.

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Shuttered businesses appoint lawyers to take on UK insurer Hiscox

The Hiscox Action Group said on Thursday it represented more than 200 policyholders with “dozens more joining daily”, that discussions with a litigation funder were advanced and that it had appointed Mishcon de Reya as legal adviser.
The dispute hinges on whether the government lockdown and the coronavirus are enough to trigger Hiscox’s business interruption insurance, designed for insured premises that cannot be used because of restrictions imposed by a public authority and in the event of a notifiable disease or infection.

In a statement last week, the insurer said: “General business interruption policies across the industry, including Hiscox’s, were not designed to cover the extraordinary circumstances caused by this pandemic.”

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Covid-19 cases in India reaches 23,502,death toll rises to 718

“The growth of COVID-19 cases has been more or less linear, not exponential; this indicates that the strategies we adopted have succeeded in containing the infection to a particular level. Post imposition of lockdown, while the number of new positive cases has increased by 16 times, testing increased by 24 times,” Mishra said in his presentation.

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Covid-19 Pandemic:IRDAI asks insurers not to pay any dividends for FY 2019-20

“In view of the emerging market conditions, and to conserve capital with the insurance companies in the interests of the policyholders and of the economy at large,insurers are urged to take a conscious call to refrain from dividend pay-outs from profits pertaining to the financial year ending 31st March 2020, till further instructions. This position shall be reassessed by the IRDAI based on financial results of insurers for the quarter ending 30th September, 2020,” said IRDAI on Friday.

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Mortality rates drop sharply in parts of India, bucking coronavirus trend

But emergency room doctors, officials, and crematoriums noted that strict lockdowns had cut the number of road traffic accidents and deaths on India’s packed railways, and may also be deterring relatives from reporting a family death.

All over the world, mortality rates are being scrutinised to determine the true impact of the coronavirus, which emerged in China late last year and is known to have infected more than 2.7 million people globally, with nearly 190,000 deaths.

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