Amid rising coronavirus cases in the country, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) has taken a major decision pertaining to Corona Kavach. IRDAI has now allowed health insurers to offer 'Corona Kavach' as a standard group insurance policy to help public, private sector companies and other business entities to provide insurance cover to their employees.

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Issuing a circular, IRDAI said, "The standard group policy is expected to be useful to various private and public establishments for covering the COVID-19 related medical needs of their employees." 

"The group policy can provide protection to a large number of employees engaged in manufacturing, services, SMEs, MSMEs, logistics sector, migrant workers and bring peace of mind to them, their family members and the employers," the regulator said.

Irdai has also allowed insurers to use the standard product name for group policy after adding the word "group", provided all terms and conditions applicable to the standard individual policy remain the same except premium rate and specification on operation of group policy. The regulator has also directed all insurers to engage with their policyholders to disseminate information on precautions to be taken by them to protect themselves from infection.

As per insurance companies, the individual short-term Corona Kavach health indemnity policy has evoked good response after its launch on July 10. All 30 insurers have started offering the policy.

The group policy will also be useful for various categories of frontline workers as groups. In case the group consists entirely of doctors, nurses or healthcare workers, Irdai said. "A discount of 5 per cent will also be available as a mark of recognition of their contribution in fighting the society's battle against COVID-19," IRDAI confirmed.

All terms and conditions of standard policy will be same as that for the Corona Kavach policy for individuals which has already been launched by health insurance companies.

The short-term Corona Kavach policy can be issued to the public for durations of three-and-a-half months, six-and-a-half months and nine-and-a-half months. The insured amount varies from Rs 50,000 to Rs 5 lakh.