Kathmandu, May 24

As the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic has been increasing a large number of people are buying insurance related to the contagion.

The Beema Samiti had directed all non-life insurance firms to issue coronavirus insurance scheme on April 16. Since then premiums worth around Rs 100 million have been collected so far. According to the Beema Samiti, a total of 14,340 insurance policies have been sold of which a total of 185,682 people have been issued COVID-19 insurance as of Saturday.

Currently, 20 non-life insurance companies across the country are issuing COVID-19 insurance policies.

Among all the insurance companies, Shikhar Insurance has issued the most number of COVID-19 related policies. Till date, it has issued 35,241 such policies and collected premium of Rs 19 million. Meanwhile, National Insurance has sold 2,035 COVID-19 insurance policies and collected Rs 1.1 million in premiums, which is the lowest among all firms.

“The number of positive cases is increasing each day and people are becoming more aware about the virus. Hence, people are more attracted towards the COVID-19 insurance,” said Chanky Chhetry, secretary of

Nepal Insurers’ Association.

Moreover, since people can buy the insurance policy via online platform number of people buying such policies is rising, he said. In the first week over 10,000 people had bought the policy. However, nobody has claimed any insurance till date.

“We had estimated that there could be around 10,000 claims, however, till date we have not received any,” he said. “This policy is more about serving the people so our target is to issue the policy to as many people who want to buy it for their convenience,” Chhetry added.

The scheme has been introduced specially for low-income people affected by COVID-19. One can pay Rs 1,000 as insurance fee to get insurance cover worth up to Rs 100,000 per person. However, for a family the premium charge is only Rs 600 per person. Similarly, there is another insurance scheme worth Rs 50,000 per person. To register for this scheme, a person for individual insurance plan is charged Rs 500 as insurance fee and for a family to register it will take only Rs 300 per person.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on May 25, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.