They circulated Pakistani video and claimed Indian Muslims celebrated Pak victory

Bengaluru, Mar 11: The Insurance Regulatory Authority of India has asked insurers to settle all claims related to coronavirus expeditiously under existing health policies that provide for treatment of hospitalisation expenses.

It has also asked insurers to design products covering the cost of treatment of coronavirus that has fast spread across the world and also resulted in increasing number of infections in India. There has been over 3,000 deaths globally and 58 cases tested positive in India.

In order to provide need-based health insurance coverage, insurers are intro ducing products for various specific diseases, including vector borne diseases. "For the purpose of meeting health insurance requirements of various sections, insurers are advised to design products covering the costs of treatment for coronavirus," the IRDAI said in a circular.

The regulator said that under existing health insurance policies where hospitalisation is covered, not only the cases related to coronvirus disease (COVID-19) shall be expeditiously handled, but all the costs of admissible medic al expenses during the course of treatment, including the treatment during quarantine period, should be settled in accordance to the applicable terms and conditions of policy contract and the extant regulatory framework.

This would bring much needed relief to policy holders some of whom were facing difficulty in getting coverage for treatment takers to coronavirus. In the absence of clear information, a few hospitals were reportedly denying for forward such claims of policy holders to the insurers.

IRDAI has now said that all the claims reported under COVID-19 shall be thoro ughly reviewed by review committee before repudiating the claims. This would prevent blanket rejection of such claims.

But to get full claim for treatment of coronavirus, industry experts said, a person should be hospitalised at least for 24 hours. Most insurers do not c over outpatient treatment.

Mangaluru, Apr 7: The virology lab set up in Wenlock Hospital here to test COVID-19 samples will start functioning from Tuesday, Karnataka District in-charge Minister Kota Srinivas Poojary said.

In his tweeter Mr Poojary said “After receiving approval from the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology (NIV), the Virology Research and Diagnostic Laboratory set up at district Wenlock will start operating from April 7. The samples for COVID-19 will be tested in the district itself. I thank the state government for helping us set up the lab.”

The new Lab becomes the 10th government lab for testing COVID-19 samples in the state.

Mangaluru, Jun 6: As buses in Karnataka are operating following precautionary measures issued by the government to combat COVID-19, a few bus conductors were seen working wearing protective gears resembling personal protective equipment (PPE) on Saturday.

The Karnataka government had allowed resumption of bus services in the state during the fourth phase of COVID-19 lockdown, which ended on May 31.

The private buses were also equipped with hand sanitiser for the passengers. All the passengers were seen wearing face masks and maintaining distance from each other.

One of the bus conductors, en route State bank to Shaktinagar in Mangaluru was, was seen fully covered with protective suit.  

Sudarshan, a private bus conductor, also covered his face with a face shield. "PPE kit is for our protection and it is a must to keep ourselves and our passengers safe from COVID-19. All necessary equipment, including sanitisers and masks to fight COVID-19 have been provided by our bus owner to us," Sudarshan said.