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Reinsurance rate increases continued for most major lines and territories during July 1 renewals:Willis Re

by | Jul 3, 2021 | , ,

Momentum continued in the catastrophe bond market, which saw around US$6 billion of new issues in the second quarter of 2021, outstripping all new cat bond capacity issued in 2019. Significant investment inflows have narrowed margins and encouraged new cat-bond cedants.
James Kent, Global CEO of Willis Re, said: “The global reinsurance market is moving towards an equilibrium. Reinsurers, backed by resilient investors delivering an increasing capital base, are robust and well positioned to provide the long-term support their clients expect and need. However, we are approaching the top of a cycle which we believe is unlikely to precede a precipitous and damaging decline in rates. Instead, the market is likely to retain its discipline in order to maintain the balance it has achieved over the past couple of years especially with the full picture of losses from COVID-19 and prior year liability lines still to emerge.”

Cyber laws, rules, and guidance must be workable, risk-based, clear, transparent, and consistently applied across companies and jurisdictions:US Insurers

by | Jul 3, 2021 | , , , , , , ,

Insurance is an important economic recovery resource for victims of ransomware attacks.  Prohibitions on the reimbursement of legal ransom payments presents potential unintended consequence such as eliminating a meaningful risk management resource.
Insurance policy and underwriting activities should not be misconstrued as cybersecurity risk assessments, which provide the insured with confidence that their security measures are sufficient to avoid or eliminate ransomware attacks. 

Insurance is an important economic recovery resource for victims of ransomware attacks.  Prohibitions on the reimbursement of legal ransom payments presents potential unintended consequence such as eliminating a meaningful risk management resource. 
Like a customer’s decision on how to manage cyber risk, insurers must also be able to determine their risk appetite through careful underwriting and appropriate coverage offerings.  

3rd wave will be ‘ripple’ in absence of faster spreading mutant: IIT study

by | Jul 3, 2021 | , , , ,

“The optimistic one – where we assume that life goes back to normal by August, and there is no new mutant. Second the intermediate one – where we assume that vaccination is 20 per cent less effective in addition to optimistic scenario assumptions. Third pessimistic one – This has an assumption different from the intermediate one: a new 25 per cent more infectious mutant spreads in August,” he added.

Guidelines issued for administering Covid vaccine to pregnant women

by | Jul 3, 2021 | , , , ,

Symptomatic pregnant women appear to be at an increased risk of severe disease and death. In case of severe disease, like all other patients, pregnant women shall also need hospitalisation. Pregnant women with underlying medical conditions like high blood pressure, obesity, age over 35 years are at a higher risk of severe illness due to COVID-19, the fact sheet said.

6 fully vaccinated people have died from COVID-19 in one of the world’s most-vaccinated countries

by | Jul 3, 2021 | , , ,

Out of six, five had taken Covishield, a version of the AstraZeneca Plc vaccine made in India, and one had been given Sinopharm, Jude Gedeon, the island nation’s public health commissioner said at a press conference on Thursday. Covishield has mainly been reserved for people over 60 in the Seychelles. All of those who died had serious underlying conditions, he said.

A massive ransomware attack has hit more than 1,000 companies

by | Jul 3, 2021 | , , , , ,

The impact of the attack is only beginning to come to light. In Sweden, a majority of grocery chain Coop’s more than 800 stores couldn’t open on Saturday after the attack led to a malfunction of their cash registers, spokesperson Therese Knapp told Bloomberg News.

There are victims in 11 countries so far, according to research published by cybersecurity firm ESET.

The hackers were identified as the Russia-linked ransomware group REvil, which was accused last month of hacking giant meatpacker JBS SA.

Covid jabs to key workers, then elderly followed by comorbid people of 24-60 yrs hikes impact: Study

by | Jul 3, 2021 | , , , , ,

Highlighting the findings of the study, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said in low-intensity transmission areas such as sparsely populated areas, vaccinating individuals with comorbidity after key workers and then reaching out to those above 60 years appears to be an elegant public health approach.

Covid first wave led to increase in antibiotic misuse in India: Study

by | Jul 2, 2021 | , , , ,

”Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to global public health,” said the study’s senior author, Sumanth Gandra, an associate hospital epidemiologist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in the US.

”Overuse of antibiotics lessens their ability to effectively treat minor injuries and common infections such as pneumonia, which means that these conditions can become serious and deadly,” Gandra said.

Billions risk being without access to water and sanitation services by 2030

by | Jul 2, 2021 | , , , ,

It notes that still only 81 per cent of the world’s population would have access to safe drinking water at home, leaving 1.6 billion without; just 67 per cent would have safe sanitation services, leaving 2.8 billion in the lurch; and only 78 per cent would have basic handwashing facilities, leaving 1.9 billion adrift.

For the first time, the report also presented emerging national data on menstrual health.

In many countries, it showed a significant proportion of women and girls are unable to meet their menstrual health needs.