Category: Insurance

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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues unfolding around the globe, people who are at higher risk for severe disease need to take special care.

COVID-19 appears to cause mild to moderate symptoms in most people who are infected. And some people seem to have no apparent effects from the virus.

But the older you are, the greater your risk for hospitalization, admission to an intensive care unit, being placed on a ventilator, and death, according to new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

For instance, people in their 50s are at higher risk than those in their 40s, and those in their 60s and 70s are at greater risk than those in their 50s, the CDC says. People 85 and older are at the greatest risk. (In the U.S., about 8 in 10 deaths from COVID-19 are

As coronavirus cases climbed in the U.S. and across the globe, the World Health Organization director general warned “the worst is yet to come” and European Union leaders were ready to extend the ban on American travelers for at least two more weeks.

Adjustments were being made to help slow spreading of the disease. Jacksonville, Florida, which is scheduled to host the GOP convention, is mandating masks, though it’s not clear for how long. Broadway stages will remain dark through 2020. And beaches in Los Angeles and several Florida counties will be closed for Fourth of July weekend as cases surge.

Also, a drug company’s steep price for remdesivir, a drug that has shortened recovery times for severe COVID-19 patients by about 31%, is drawing criticism.

Some good news? The nation’s leading infectious diseases expert remains “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine could be widely available by year’s end.

Here are

As more people start to return to their workplaces, many employers are introducing new ways to check up on their staff, from thermal scanners to wristbands.

For workers at any of Ford’s sites worldwide, there are two new steps to the morning routine. First, answer three health questions, on your mobile phone, confirming you aren’t a risk to your co-workers. Then, get scanned at the entrance to your workplace to check you aren’t running a temperature.

It’s not just Ford, these measures are now typical for many firms as employees return. Amazon, Walmart and dozens of others – including the BBC – have introduced thermal scanners. The move is broadly welcomed by workforces, as keen as their bosses to ensure the virus is contained.

“We’ve not had anyone say no,” says Ford’s John Gardiner. “Knowing the risks, people understand we’re doing as much as we can to protect their health

Emily Volz is a psychology graduate student at Pacifica Graduate Institute specializing in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco Psychologies. Here, in a personal essay below, Volz shares how the racial awakening and protests across the country have made her check her privilege and how an intervention is necessary within white America.

My family owns a building in downtown Seattle. On May 31, I woke up to images of the building in a Seattle Times article. The images show shattered windows, mannequins toppled and goods scattered.

One photo shows several police officers walking out of the building, a symbolic image of the structural causes of the destruction.

I spoke with my mom that afternoon. “I’m not mad,” she told me.

MORE: After racist park encounter, Chris Cooper takes us birding in Central Park

Losing windows is nothing compared to losing Black lives. Every single death is a loss to our nation,

As tentative signs start to emerge of a revival for the travel industry, our minds are turning to potential holiday destinations for this summer.

France, as our closest neighbour barring Ireland, makes sense for a first international sojourn.

But can British holidaymakers get there? And will we be welcome if we go?

Here’s everything you need to know.

Am I allowed to travel to France from the UK?

At the moment, the Foreign Office is advising against all non-essential international travel – including to France.

The ban doesn’t make travel abroad “illegal” as such – but it does invalidate your travel insurance and means you may find it tricky to get help from the embassy or consulate if things go wrong.

However, the government is expected to announce that this blanket warning will be relaxed from 6 July, alongside the ditching of compulsory quarantine for inbound travellers from countries

Millions more U.S. homes are in danger of flooding than federal emergency planners have previously warned, and the threat to those trillions of dollars of properties is rising because of climate change, according to a new analysis.

The data from nonprofit research group First Street Foundation provides detailed property-level flood risk information for the public at a time when the private sector is taking steps to prepare for the damage from floods, storms and other climate-driven disasters, in the absence of aggressive action from the federal government. POLITICO has reported that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored enterprises that back half the U.S. mortgages, suspect they don’t have a firm handle on the climate risks to their portfolio, even as banks and insurers are quietly building their own databases of climate-driven risks like flooding and wildfires.

First Street assessed the risks specific sites face from flooding that go into

Broadway stages will remain dark through 2020 amid a national boom in coronavirus cases, but the nation’s leading infectious diseases expert remains “cautiously optimistic” that a vaccine could be widely available by year’s end.

And a drug company’s steep price for remdesivir, a drug that has proved to shorten recovery times for severe COVID-19 patients by about 31%, is drawing criticism.

Nashville, Tennessee, is requiring masks as of Monday. San Francisco Mayor London Breed halted its plans for businesses that were scheduled to reopen Monday. In Arizona, the mayor of one town said he has no plans to cancel a slew of upcoming summer events or require masks despite a boom in cases in his state.

“It is somewhat alarming how many expect and almost invite a more drastic infringement on their freedoms,” Eagar Mayor Bryce Hamblin said in a statement. “My response from the onset of COVID-19 pandemic has

During three months of lockdown, tens of thousands of travellers will have had their holidays cancelled. Many will have found claiming a refund an uphill struggle. So what are your rights when it comes to Covid cancellations? Here’s everything you need to know.

My package holiday has been cancelled. What are my rights?

Under the Package Travel Regulations, if you book a holiday including transport and accommodation that is cancelled by the operator, you are entitled to a full cash refund within two weeks.

But the company says it can’t meet that deadline…

Many holiday firms are in an impossible position, unable to meet the legal deadline because they simply don’t have the money.

Britain’s travel industry is facing its greatest crisis in modern

Salome Cuence-Alfonso knew she needed a job. But little did she know that the connections she’d make at this one would make her new job so rewarding that it didn’t even feel like work.

In May, the 18-year-old started working for Papa, a Miami startup founded in 2016 that provides assistance and socialization to seniors through a phone application, website or 800 number.

Seniors were already a marginalized group before the COVID-19 outbreak, but the pandemic shutdown fueled further isolation. That’s where Cuence-Alfonso and the rest of the Papa staff come in.

The company previously offered in-person companionship, assistance and transportation; during the past few months, the service has gone virtual.

Papa founder and CEO Andrew Parker described Papa as a “family- on-demand” service. He

As countries around the globe tentatively begin to relax restrictions on travel, the promise of tapas al fresco and long, lazy sun-filled days beside the sea come top of the travel wish-list for many tourists.

Spain has long topped the list as one of the UK’s favourite holiday destinations, with more than 18 million British tourists visiting in 2019 – a fifth of the country’s overall total of nearly 84 million visitors, according to figures from the National Institute of Statistics.

But can British holidaymakers get there? And will we be welcome if we do?

Here’s all the information you need to know.

Am I allowed to travel to Spain from the UK?

At the moment, the Foreign Office is advising against all non-essential international travel – including to Spain.

The ban doesn’t make travel abroad “illegal” as such – but it does invalidate