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General insurers sell 7,50,000 Covid-19 policies covering 1.28 mn lives, earn a premium of Rs 215 crore:Alamelu

“96 percent of the population don’t have any kind of health cover against Covid -19 . During this time also a small out of pocket expense in hospitals can financially impact the customer. There is a need to reduce this gap,Today, health has become the biggest line of business under the general insurance category and by the year end, it will overtake motor insurance also” TL Alamelu,member, Non-Life, IRDAI, said.

India’s COVID-19 tally crosses 27-lakh mark,death toll climbes to 51,797

the death toll climbed to 51,797 with 876 people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours
There are 6,73,166 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which is 24.91 per cent of the total caseload, while the number of recoveries has risen to 19,77,779.
Of the 876 fresh deaths reported, 228 are from Maharashtra, 120 from Tamil Nadu, 115 from Karnataka, 82 from Andhra Pradesh, 66 from Uttar Pradesh, 45 from West Bengal, 51 from Punjab, 23 from Madhya Pradesh, 18 from Delhi, 15 from Gujarat, 13 from Kerala, 12 from Haryana, 11 from Rajasthan and 10 from Odisha

General insurance industry in Japan to contract in 2020 due to COVID-19, says GlobalData

Sangharsan Biswas, Insurance Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The Japanese economy is projected to contract by 5% in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumer spending in May 2020 had declined by 16% year-on-year. This translates to lower premium collections for general insurers, as businesses scale down their operations.”

The impact on Japan’s general insurance business is most visible in motor and property insurance, which together account for over 75% of the premiums. As per the data from Japan Automobile Dealers Association, new vehicle sales declined by 23% in June 2020, on a year-on-year basis.

Lloyd’s Lab selects Thimble to develop Pandemic Business Interruption Insurance for SMBs

As part of Lloyd’s Lab, Thimble will tackle this issue head on. The startup, known for its instant insurance policies of flexible duration, will develop low-limit parametric contingent business interruption coverage to protect businesses from COVID-19 and future pandemics. By doing so, Thimble will position insurance as a “first line of defense” that pays small businesses immediately if specific criteria are met– essentially providing an “instant stimulus” while governments figure out the rest. 

From Africa to America, businesses and insurers face survival showdowns

Businesses around the world, hamstrung by lockdowns, are facing often-existential showdowns with insurance companies that are reluctant to pay out on business interruption policy claims for a disaster unknown in living memory.

The insurers say many such policies exclude pandemics, require physical damage on premises or do not apply to the widespread lockdowns seen globally. Facing pressure from regulators, mounting reputational damage and a wave of lawsuits, they warn that paying out could sink their industry.

In some countries, including South Africa, France and Germany, insurers are now opening their chequebooks. But for many customers, these settlements or ex-gratia payments – voluntary payouts that do not imply legal liability – fall short.

COVID-19: SC refuses to direct transfer of contributions made to PM CARES to NDRF

The apex court said the National Disaster Management Plan prepared by the Centre deals with all aspects of the Biological and Public Health Emergencies in systematic and planned manner and thus there is no need of separate plan to deal with COVID-19 pandemic.

The bench said the National Disaster Management Authority was well aware of the epidemics and had issued guidelines in the year 2008 itself which has been further detailed in Plan-2019.

Alamelu Panel favours setting up of a Loss Prevention body for the general insurance industry, will aid reduction of premiums

The panel has suggested that the proposed company should be promoted by the IRDAI as well as the industry.

The company may start working on promoting safety and loss prevention in the areas of Property Insurance and motor Insurance to begin with and can expand into all areas of general insurance as well as health insurance in the future.
`The existing loss control practices of the insurers are incidental to the primary function of underwriting. Needless to state reducing the frequency and severity of losses would benefit both insurers and insureds, as the overall burning cost and consequently the premium rate would come down;,said the report prepared by the working group..

India’s coronavirus death toll surpasses 50,000,total number of tests cross the 3 crore mark

Implementation of testing aggressively, tracking comprehensively and treating efficiently through a plethora of measures have contributed to the existing high level of recoveries as well, it said. The total number of recoveries in the country rose to 18,62,258 on Sunday, according to official data.

Improved and effective clinical treatment in hospitals, supervised home isolation, use of non-invasive oxygen support, and improved services of the ambulances for ferrying patients for prompt and timely treatment have been the focus of the Centre and state and UT governments, the ministry said.

Blow to WHO? EU clinches first Covid-19 vaccine deal with AstraZeneca

The European Commission, which is negotiating on behalf of all 27 EU member states, said the deal included an option to purchase 100 million additional doses from the British drugmaker should its vaccine prove safe and effective.

The EU’s bilateral deal mirrors moves by the United States and other wealthy states, some of which are critical of the WHO’s initiative, and further reduces the potentially available stock in the race to secure effective Covid-19 vaccines.
The EU move could complicate efforts led by the WHO and GAVI, a global alliance for vaccines, to buy shots on behalf of rich and developing countries with a separate scheme.

The Commission has urged EU states to shun the WHO-led initiative because it sees it as too expensive and slow, EU officials told Reuters in July

Covid-19: India’s flimsy antigen testing regime ‘like flipping a coin’

With one of the world’s fastest-growing epidemics but also one of the lowest testing rates, India in late June started to use quick antigen tests to ramp up detection. But the tests, which can report false negatives as much 50 per cent of the time, threaten to obscure the true picture of its outbreak, further challenging containment efforts.

Sweden set to become world’s first cashless society: GlobalData

Ravi Sharma, Retail Banking Analyst GlobalData’s, comments: “Contactless payments in Sweden is already growing at a faster pace, with Swedes increasingly making contactless payments in shops, restaurants and cafes. As a result of the pandemic, its usage is expected to become even more popular. The growing acceptance of contactless payments will support the adoption and use of NFC-enabled mobile wallet solutions, such as Apple Pay and Google Pay.”

Some Delhi hospitals seeing COVID re-emergence in recovered patients

“There can be a relapse. The virus can be isolated from the body particularly from the sputum. We have the evidence that after ninth or tenth day the virus becomes non-infectious and the patients are not tested again,” he said.

“However, the virus has been reported to be living in patients who have recovered around 39 to 40 days back,” he added.