Global travel insurance, medical assistance and employee assistance provider Cover-More Group has announced that, as of today (13 March), it is suspending sales of its cancel-for-any-reason add-on, as the Covid-19 outbreak continues to escalate. Judith Crompton, CEO of Cover-More in the Asia-Pacific region, said that the suspension will continue for an ‘interim period’ while the company performs a detailed assessment of the risk profile, in partnership with its Australia and New Zealand underwriter Zurich.

“Cover-More is very proud of our CFAR product, which we have pioneered in Australia and New Zealand since April 2018,” said Crompton. “And we absolutely want it to build into a long-term sustainable feature of our travel insurance offer in the Australian and NZ travel markets. We have not taken this decision lightly, and we stress that we hope this suspension will enable us to keep CFAR in market in the longer term.”

She said that the company, and the travel industry as a whole, was in ‘uncharted waters and unprecedented times’, and that Cover-More would work to support its travel agents and partners and its travelling customers in Australia and New Zealand.

Cover-More is not the only insurance provider to take measures like this - LV, Aviva, InsureandGo and the Post Office in the UK have all taken steps to withdraw travel insurance cover for future coronavirus claims. The moves follow the World Health Organization's decision to classify the outbreak a global pandemic.