Category:

Non-Life

Facebook will ban ads discouraging people from getting vaccines

Facebook is working with public health partners like the World Health Organization and UNICEF on messaging campaigns to increase immunization rates, they added.

Anti-vaccine content and misinformation about the new COVID-19 vaccines have flourished on social media platforms including Facebook during the coronavirus pandemic, researchers told Reuters earlier this year.

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Asia Pacific health care benefit cost expected to jump by 8.5% in 2021, Willis Towers Watson survey

The 2021 Global Medical Trends Survey, the largest of its kind, found that medical insurers in APAC project health care benefit costs will take a sudden drop in 2020 before rebounding to 8.5% in 2021, up from 6.2% this year and 7.5% in 2019.

Markets including China (9.3%), India (10%), Indonesia (12%), Malaysia (12.5%), New Zealand (20%), Philippines (8.8%), Singapore (8.2%), Thailand (8%) and Vietnam (10.2%) will see an increase in excess of  8%  next year.
According to the study, cancer (79%), cardiovascular diseases (76%), and conditions affecting musculoskeletal and connective tissue (42%) are the top three conditions currently affecting medical costs in APAC, with cancer and cardiovascular diseases expected to remain so in the near future.

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Lloyd’s of London reviews insurance contracts due to COVID-19

“The insurance industry must urgently reassess how it can better serve and support its customers,” Lloyd’s Chief Executive John Neal said in a statement.
Lloyd’s recommendations for simpler products including insurers carrying out a “linguistics review” of policy documents, investing in new products such as parametric insurance which pay out immediately when specific triggers are hit, and involving customers in product design.

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Swiss Re and Daimler launch new company Movinx, to transform automotive & mobility insurance business

Both  shareholders of the 50/50 joint venture will leverage their complementary expertise to establish a new business model.
The aim is to develop fully digital automotive and mobility insurance products that both fulfill changing customer needs and offer best-in-class service quality. The first insurance products and services are planned to launch in France in 2021.

In the coming years, further market entries are planned across Europe, in the Americas, and in Asia.
Pravina Ladva, Swiss Re’s Digital Transformation Officer, said: ”We believe that partnering with Daimler Insurance Services and establishing Movinx will take us to the next level in innovating mobility insurance. Our joint long-term ambition is to unlock an ecosystem interplay where insurance supports the introduction of new technologies such as advanced driving assistance systems and autonomous cars as well as new business models in the mobility area.”

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Mumbai hit by massive power outage

The failure was caused by “technical problems” during maintenance work, the energy minister of Maharashtra said in a video message. Power has now been restored to many areas of the city, officials and witnesses said.
The state government has asked the suppliers to provide uninterrupted power to hospitals, many of which are treating COVID-19 patients.

Hospitals and other institutions in India have over the years banked on emergency diesel power generators as a backup due to frequent outages caused by demand outstripping supply, though the situation is improving now.

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As globe gallops into vaccine trials, insurers remain unfazed

While more than 40 experimental COVID-19 vaccines are being tested on humans, the insurance companies with decades of experience in assessing the risks of clinical trials don’t see anything to be unduly concerned about.

Executives at insurer Allianz and brokers Gallagher and Marsh, among the leading players in clinical trials insurance, told Reuters that premiums had only marginally increased so far in the current pandemic

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Natural disasters surge in past 20 years, likely to continue to wreak havoc: U.N.

China (577) and the United States (467) recorded the highest number of disaster events from 2000 to 2019, followed by India (321), the Philippines (304) and Indonesia (278), the U.N. said in a report issued the day before the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction. Eight of the top 10 countries are in Asia.

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