COVID-19: The Property-Casualty Perspective

The world is going through an extraordinary event. Since it first appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 (“First Covid-19 Case Happened in November, China Government Records Show - Report” 2020), the coronavirus has spread rapidly to most of the world’s population. Indeed, one of the difficulties of writing an article like this is to keep up with the pace of change. An earlier draft had included specific references to the current number of countries and individuals who had been affected. It took only a few days for those numbers to be badly short of the mark.

Though the pace and character of response has varied, there are now a variety of travel restrictions in place in an effort to contain the spread of the disease. Many businesses have asked employees to work remotely where possible. Events and large public gatherings have been cancelled. The National Basketball Association — after having a player test positive — has suspended its season (Cacciola and Deb 2020). England’s Premier League has suspended football play (“Premier League Suspended as Coronavirus Continues to Trouble Football” 2020). Every Walt Disney theme park in the world will close for several weeks (Barnes 2020).