Thousands of virus claims received in Australia
But the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) has warned that many are unlikely to be paid
Data suggests that as many as 15,000 Covid-19-related travel insurance claims have been received in Australia since the outbreak began, but the ICA says that due to exclusions relating to pandemics and ‘known events’, many of these will probably not be paid. The council’s Head of Risk and Operations, Karl Sullivan, did say however that customers should not be discouraged from filing legitimate claims, as insurers are trying hard to be as accommodating as possible. Additionally, Sullivan said that many claims will be paid, depending on when the policy in question was purchased.
At this stage, Sullivan went on to say, there is little available data for claims made by small and medium-sized enterprises.
The ICA designated the Covid-19 outbreak an ‘insurance catastrophe’ on 11 March.