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Munich Re to no longer cover events cancelled for pandemics

The world’s largest resinsurer is making the change after it faced large losses this year in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

Torsten Jeworrek, who oversees the reinsurance segment, said that Munich Re would remain in the business but that the tweak in its strategy was a result of the pandemic. The resinsurer will also adjust prices for event cancellation coverage, he said.

The cancellation and postponement of sports events like the Olympics in Tokyo as well as concerts have been a major burden for Munich Re, which expects a total of 4 billion euros ($4.85 billion) in COVID-related losses.

Get used to limited access, EU tells City of London bankers & insurers

Brexit makes it “even more urgent” for the EU to develop its own capital market to cut reliance on the City of London, Europe’s biggest financial centre, Mairead McGuinness said.

Britain’s full access to the EU ends on Dec. 31 when a transition period that followed Brexit in January expires.
Many banks, asset managers and insurers in London have opened hubs in the bloc to avoid disruption to clients from limited direct access from the UK.

France to help farmers to abandon glyphosate weedkiller developed by Bayer’s Monsanto

Glyphosate, first developed by Bayer’s Monsanto under the Roundup brand, has generated intense global debate over its safety since a World Health Organization agency concluded in 2015 that it probably causes cancer.

While regulators worldwide have determined glyphosate to be safe, Bayer agreed in June to settle nearly 100,000 U.S. lawsuits for $10.9 billion, denying claims that Roundup caused cancer.

ADB’s $300 mn funding to strengthen India’s primary health care in urban areas

The ADB’s Strengthening Comprehensive Primary Health Care in Urban Areas Programme will support the Ayushman Bharat (the Healthy India Initiative) Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWC) and PM-ASBY to ensure equitable access to quality comprehensive primary health care services in urban areas in 13 states.

The programme will benefit an estimated 256 million urban residents, including 51 million from the slum areas of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and West Bengal.

Officer unions demand to include bankers as frontline Covid warriors for vaccination

In a letter written to Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, unions said the government is expecting at least two vaccines against Covid-19, Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Oxford’s Covishield, to be available possibly in January 2021; and there is a plan to inoculate the frontline Covid warriors including those working in healthcare, police, sanitary workers, etc.
Bankers have been providing yeoman service ever since the announcement of lockdown and have continued to provide required banking services, it said, adding bankers have been instrumental in keeping the wheels of the economy moving despite hazards and constraints.

Travel restrictions effective in countries with low number of Covid-19 cases: Lancet study

“We recognise that these measures carry a high economic and social cost, so it is important that governments use travel restrictions in a targeted way,” said Professor Mark Jit from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who led the study.

“Before introducing restrictions, they should take into account local infection figures, epidemic growth rates, and the volume of travellers arriving from countries heavily-affected by the virus,” Jit explained.

Large US study confirms Covid-19 complications: lung, kidney and cardiovascular issues

The most common complications associated with Covid-19 were pneumonia, respiratory failure, kidney failure, and sepsis or systemic inflammation, consistent with other studies.The researchers also found associations with a range of other lung and cardiovascular conditions, such as collapsed lung, blood clotting disorders and heart inflammation, although the risk of these was relatively low

Covid-19 antibodies may fade very quickly: Study

The authors said their findings may raise important questions about the reliability of seroprevalence studies, since the rapid waning of antibody titters may lead to an underestimation of how many people may have been previously infected in a given population.

“The decrease in antibodies after infection also raises the question of how long antibodies elicited by vaccination will last, and whether frequent boosting will be needed to maintain protection,” the authors noted.

How India’s premier cyber agency is fighting evolving threats

According to Dr Sanjay Bahl, Director-General, CERT-In, they have seen different set of attacks during the pandemic and the threat actors primarily employed references related to COVID-19 in phishing attacks to steal sensitive information and drop additional malware.

“The threat actors devised new strategies to target victims with scams or malware campaigns using legitimate corporate branding in the name of COVID-19 and names of trusted organisations in phishing attacks in order to attain credibility and to lure victims,” Bahl told IANS.

Kia Motors recalling 295,000 vehicles due to risk of engine fires

Last week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced that Kia and Hyundai must pay USD 137 million in fines and for safety improvements because they moved too slowly to recall more than 1 million vehicles with engines that can fail.

The fines resolve a three-year government probe into the companies’ behavior involving recalls of multiple models dating to the 2011 model year.