Existing health policies cover coronavirus: General Insurance Council

Mumbai: The General Insurance Council (GIC), 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 here 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.

According to the latest Irdai data, only about 4.2 crore individuals have a retail health policy, leaving out-of-pocket spends at about 65 per cent as compared to global average of 18 per cent.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that Indians don't need to panic about the outbreak of Covid-19 coronavirus. Speaking with India Today, Dr Rodrico Ofrin, Regional Emergencies Director, WHO, said there is no need to panic, as cases tested positive in India were because of travelling abroad, citizens' caught the virus on foreign land.

Speaking about whether the virus will subside as temperatures rise, he said, "We don't know that yet, research still going on the same. It is a relatively new virus so gathering information on it will take time. Research on it is taking place 24x7, even as we speak there many experts across the globe are trying to figure out its evolution."

The WHO has officially named the deadly virus as "Covid-19" which originated in Wuhan,China. An Indian student in Dubai has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, taking the total number of cases in the United Arab Emirates to 27, health authorities said.

"A 16-year student of an Indian school in Dubai has tested positive for the coronavirus. The infection was contracted from the student's parent who had travelled overseas," Gulf News reported on Thursday citing the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) as saying in a statement.

"The parent developed symptoms five days after returning to Dubai. Both the student and family members have been quarantined in hospital and are stable and recovering well. All other family members have also been quarantined."

The United States confirmed its 11th death from the outbreak on Wednesday, along with more than 150 confirmed cases

The Indian government asserted that there is no shortage of raw ingredients or medicines in the country for next three months and a group of ministers is monitoring the situation on a daily basis to ensure preparedness for the challenge posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

All initiatives are being taken to ensure there is no impact of the disease in India, Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda said.

"There is no shortage of any APIs in the country. We have sufficient APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients) and medicines in the country," he said adding "for another three months there is no shortage for undertaking production in the pharma sector".

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has asked the government to make an action plan to fight the spread of COVID-19.

He also took a swipe at the government over what he alluded to as lack of preparedness to deal with the highly contagious virus that has killed over 3,000 people in China and affected 90,000 across the world.

"The Health Minister saying that the Indian Govt has the #coronavirus crisis under control, is like the Capt of the Titanic telling passengers not to panic as his ship was unsinkable. It's time the Govt made public an action plan backed by solid resources to tackle this crisis," Mr Gandhi tweeted, hours after Health Minister Harsh Vardhan gave a long briefing in the Rajya Sabha on the steps the Centre has taken to handle the situation.

Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) MP Hanuman Beniwal said Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi must get tested for Coronavirus as they have just returned from Italy and may end up spreading it.

"Most of the patients who have been tested positive for Coronavirus in India have a connection with Italy." Fourteen Italian nationals, who have tested positive for coronavirus, have been shifted from the Indo-Tibetan Border Police's (ITBP) Chhawla camp quarantine facility to the Medanta Hospital in Gurugram on Thursday.

The information was shared by the PRO Medanta Medicity in Delhi-NCR with ANI this morning.

"Medanta has received, at the special request of the government, 14 asymptomatic persons suspected to have COVID-19.

These patients are housed on a completely separate floor, in an isolated quarantine floor, with no contact with the rest of the hospital," the PRO said. The hospital has also deployed a separate team of doctors for treating these patients.Earlier, two of these Italian tourists had tested positive for coronavirus at a Jaipur hospital. Out of 21 Italian nationals, 8 are male and 13 are female.