Edelweiss-Gallagher, a composite insurance broker in India, has facilitated a Pandemic Group Insurance product for informal sector and frontline workers across industries in India. This initiative was launched recently with a comprehensive COVID-19 indemnity cover solution and is backed by India’s top insurers.

This Group level insurance solution will provide an insurance cover to food delivery agents, informal sector workers employed by companies in factories as well as frontline workers of hospitals, healthcare providers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, who now find themselves especially vulnerable.

The Insurance policies can be customized for corporates to provide coverage from Rs 50,000 to Rs 50 lakh towards hospitalization cover, at private as well as government hospitals. The coverage will include ICU treatment, road ambulance and access to a secondary medical opinion. The product is exclusive to the Indian market and requires a positive test report for Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) conducted at an ICMR Authorized Test Centre in India.  

To allow operations of factories and essential services during the lockdown, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in a circular dated 15 April 2020 released revised guidelines mandating health insurance cover for all workers. This has been followed by a circular from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) advising insurers to provide group and individual insurance cover, with simple wordings and conditions.