ICICI Lombard, Go Digit, Flipkart join hands to offer Covid-19 health insurance

The covers include easy claim, hospitalisation cover, room or intensive care unit (ICU) rent, ambulance assistance and teleconsultation. Besides, there will be digital claim process as well as no requirement of medical tests at the time of purchasing a policy.

PTI

April 10, 2020 / 12:50 IST

ICICI Lombard, Go Digit General Insurance and Flipkart on Friday said they have joined hands to will offer health policies related to Covid-19.

The covers include easy claim, hospitalisation cover, room or intensive care unit (ICU) rent, ambulance assistance and teleconsultation. Besides, there will be digital claim process as well as no requirement of medical tests at the time of purchasing a policy.

The two health insurance policies will enable health cover for consumers combating the global pandemic, the companies said in a joint statement.

Industry estimates suggest that about 56 per cent of the Indian population is not covered under any health insurance policy. Understanding this need of the hour, Flipkart's partnership with ICICI Lombard and Go Digit General Insurance offers users health insurance policies that give a range of benefits, it said.

The ‘Covid-19 Protection Cover' by ICICI Lombard provides an instant Rs 25,000 benefit plan paid to the customer on positive diagnosis of the disease.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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