corona virus

'Insurance catastrophe' for businesses as coronavirus not covered By Charlotte Grieve The Insurance Council of Australia has declared an "insurance catastrophe" as the industry braces for a spike in coronavirus-related claims while policies largely exclude quarantinable diseases. Business interruption insurance policies typically cover staff wages and rent or loan repayments during catastrophic events. In the past, this extended to infectious diseases but in 2004, the global insurance industry began to introduce exclusions for losses relating to quarantinable diseases, according to the ICA. ICA spokesman Campbell Fuller said while there was not a one-size-fits-all approach to insurance policies, and some individualised policies may include pandemic cover, most business insurance products exclude pandemics simply because the uncertainty of the risk is too high. "Insurers are always about calculating the risk, how do you calculate the impact of the pandemic?" …