The COVID-19 pandemic could cause large losses for liability
insurers covering nursing homes and long-term care facilities, and
therefore further tightening of rates, a Canadian managing general
agent predicts.
"There are a lot of exposures in the business,"
Stephen Stewart, CEO of Stewart Specialty Risk Underwriting Ltd.,
said in an interview of long-term care facilities. "If
it's not well-managed, then those exposures tend to increase.
You've got patient-to-patient and staff-to-patient exposures,
and these things all need to be managed."
COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has
killed almost 2,200 people across Canada, with more than half of
those deaths being linked to long-term care facilities,
Canadian Press reported Friday. Ontario reported 57 more
deaths at long-term care facilities Friday; its overall COVID
caseload had grown by 5%, including a single-day record jump of 640
cases.
