About 460,000 COVID-19 insurance policies were sold over the past week as people seek to protect themselves amid soaring local infections, Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) data showed.
Local insurers have sold 1.65 million COVID-19 insurance policies since they were launched early last year, following a spike of 38 percent in the week ending Monday, the data showed.
The acceleration in sales could be attributed to a surge in local infections, which tallied 551 on Tuesday last week, and surpassed 1,000 on Monday, Central Epidemic Command Center data showed.
Although many insurers earlier this month halted sales of policies compensating quarantined people, other related insurance products were available to cover hospitalization and adverse events from vaccination.
Sales of COVID-19 insurance this week totaled NT$302 million (US$10.32 million), about one- third of such policies that were sold up until Tuesday last week, data showed.
Meanwhile, local insurers had compensated 13,000 policyholders as of Monday, up 17 percent from one week ago, with payouts growing 12 percent to NT$628 million, the data showed.
The number of compensated policyholders and the amount of compensation are expected to continue rising, as most policyholders claim for compensation after being released from quarantine, the commission said.
The growth in compensation for vaccine insurance was slower than payouts for COVID-19 policies — local insurers compensated 150 policyholders over the week with a combined NT$5.1 million, the data showed.
As of Monday, local insurers had compensated 1,738 policyholders a total of NT$63 million, the data showed.
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