General insurers say existing health policies cover coronavirus

March 05, 2020 16:48

The General Insurance Council, the apex industry lobby of the 44-member strong non-life insurers, on Thursday said almost all health insurance policies cover epidemics, including coronavirus. The statement comes after the regulator Irdai on Wednesday asked insurers to cover coronavirus cases in their existing policies and also to ensure that they expeditiously attend to the coronavirus claims.

"Almost all the existing health policies cover almost all epidemics, which includes the coronavirus too. What the regulator (Irdai) said was not to frame a new policy but asking the industry to treat coronavirus cases expeditiously," A V Girija Kumar, chairman of the General Insurance Council, told PTI on the sidelines of an industry event to launch an awareness campaign to increase adoption of general insurance policies. There are 30 confirmed cases of coronavirus infection in the country as of Thursday, of which 16 are Italian tourists.

Image: Nurses speak during an awareness event in the outdoor patient ward about the COVID-19 coronavirus at a government hospital in Gandhi Nagar in Jammu on Thursday.

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