Latest COVID-19 Headlines

All the headlines from our COVID-19 Topic Page, ordered by recency.

Unions Say Meat Plants Relaxed COVID-19 Safety Measures After Outbreaks

Dec 26 2021 // Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, last year assigned a team of dedicated employees to enforce social distancing and sanitize surfaces at a South Dakota slaughterhouse where COVID-19 infected nearly...

Berkshire’s Candymaker Must Face Worker’s Suit Over Husband’s COVID Death: California Court

Dec 22 2021 // A California candymaker must face a lawsuit by an employee who says she caught COVID-19 at work and gave it to her husband, resulting in his death, a state appeals court held on Tuesday, upholding what appeared to be the...

COVID-19 to Cut UK Life Expectancy by 9 Months: RBC Analysts

Dec 21 2021 // The coronavirus pandemic is seen cutting life expectancy in the UK by nine months, Royal Bank of Canada analysts said, helping to reverse trends of longevity.The estimate from insurance stock analysts Gordon Aitken and...

Medical Boards Under Pressure to Discipline Doctors Pushing False Covid-19 Claims

Dec 21 2021 // They have decried COVID-19 as a hoax, promoted unproven treatments and pushed bogus claims about the vaccine, including that the shots magnetize the human body.The purveyors of this misinformation are not shadowy figures...

Indiana Lawmakers Consider Vaccine Limits as COVID Surges

Dec 20 2021 // Some Indiana doctors and health experts warned last week that a Republican-backed proposal aimed at limiting workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements would hurt efforts to stem the illness as the state’s hospitals...

M&A Insurance Rates Nearly Double After Explosion of Dealmaking During Pandemic

Dec 20 2021 // The cost of insurance to cover problems involving M&A has nearly doubled in just two years, underwriters and brokers said, after an explosion of global dealmaking during the COVID-19 pandemic.Potential buyers take out...

Returning to the Office During a Pandemic

Dec 20 2021 // There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on the workforce. It has caused millions of businesses and employees to shift to a virtual work environment. But as the COVID-19 vaccine...

National Insurance Industry Council Pressed on Through Pandemic to Help City of Hope

Dec 20 2021 // Insurance and fundraising are both people-facing endeavors, so one would think that COVID-19, with all of its lockdowns and distancing, would have killed the giving spirit for a charitable group like the National Insurance...

The COVID Era: Finding Opportunity in Times of Hardship

Dec 20 2021 // The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t a short-term event. That’s obvious. But the question should no longer be — “when will it end?” As a practical matter, it’s not going to end.When we ask the...

Court OKs Biden Covid Vaccine Mandate for Employers; Supreme Court Appeal Likely

Dec 19 2021 // A federal appeals court panel on Friday allowed President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead, reversing a previous decision on a requirement that could affect some 84...

Amid COVID, Insurance Regulation Remains Profitable

Dec 19 2021 // This post is part of an Insurance Journal blog presenting the work and viewpoints of The International Center for Law & Economics.The COVID-19 pandemic hit state budgets particularly hard in 2020, with a $24.11 billion...

Millions of Migrants Can’t Get COVID Vaccines Because of Drugmakers’ Liability Fears

Dec 16 2021 // BRUSSELS/BANGKOK – Tens of millions of migrants may be denied COVID-19 vaccines from a global program because some major manufacturers are worried about legal risks from harmful side effects, according to officials and...

London Turns Into Ghost Town as UK Faces Record-Breaking Wave of COVID Infections

Dec 16 2021 // The owner of Parlez, a pub and restaurant in south London, hoped that sales this Christmas would have bounced back fully from last winter’s COVID-19 lockdown. Instead, every one of this week’s group...

Workers’ Comp Bureau of California Issues COVID-19 Analysis

Dec 16 2021 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California in collaboration with several other workers’ comp rating bureaus released the COVID-19’s Impact on Workers Compensation report.To better...

NFL Requiring Coaches, Team Staffs to Get COVID-19 Boosters; Players Exempt

Dec 15 2021 // The NFL is requiring coaches, front-office staff and team personnel to receive a COVID-19 booster by Dec. 27.In a memo sent to teams on Monday and obtained by The Associated Press, the league said: “Given the...

EEOC Addresses When COVID-19 May Be a Disability Requiring Accommodation

Dec 15 2021 // An applicant or employee whose COVID-19 results in mild symptoms that resolve in a few weeks—with no other consequences—will not have a disability that could make someone eligible to receive a reasonable accommodation,...

M&A Insurance Rates Nearly Double After Explosion of Dealmaking During Pandemic

Dec 10 2021 // The cost of insurance to cover problems involving M&A has nearly doubled in just two years, underwriters and brokers said, after an explosion of global dealmaking during the COVID-19 pandemic.Potential buyers take out...

Norwegian Cruise Ship Outside New Orleans Reports COVID Outbreak

Dec 6 2021 // Ten people aboard a Norwegian Cruise Line ship approaching New Orleans have tested positive for COVID-19, officials said over the weekend.The Norwegian Breakaway had departed New Orleans on Nov. 28 and is due to return...

Why Millions Have Left Workforce During Pandemic

Dec 6 2021 // Approximately five million people in the U.S. are unemployed or have left the workforce since the pandemic began, and it is difficult to predict whether their decision was short term or permanent.According to S&P...

Report: California Workers’ Comp Covid Claim Volume Trending Down After Summer Surge

Dec 6 2021 // The summer surge of COVID-19 claims that hit the California workers’ compensation system in July and August appears to have run its course, according to the California Workers’ Compensation Institute.A CWCI...