California Passes 103K COVID-19 Workers’ Comp Claims for AY 2020
The monthly count of COVID-19 job injury claims reported rose to a record 32,549 cases in December, bringing the total number of COVID-19 claims for accident year 2020 to 103,712, or more than one out of every six workers’ compensation claims with a 2020 injury date according to a new analysis by the California Workers’ Compensation Institute.
The CWCI analyzed data from the California Division of Workers’ Compensation.
With additional year-end claims continuing to be filed, CWCI projects that the ultimate virus count for December will be 43,290 claims, while the projected count for all of AY 2020 is 117,989 COVID-19 claims.
The latest figures, based on claims reported to the DWC as of Jan. 25, show that more than half of all workers’ comp claims in California last month were for COVID-19, up sharply from 29.3% in November, according to CWCI.
“The year-end surge in COVID-19 job injury claims coincided with the post-holiday wave of coronavirus cases that hit the state,” the CWCI report stated. “Even though additional claims continue to be filed, the huge increases in COVID-19 cases already recorded for November and December have driven overall workers’ comp claim volume for the fourth quarter of AY 2020 to 166,587 claims, which is 3.2% more than the 161,478 claims recorded for the fourth quarter of AY 2019 – the first time that AY 2020 quarterly claim volume exceeded the year-earlier figure.”
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