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Cancelling A Trip Due To Coronavirus? Here’s What Travellers Need To Know.

Passengers wear masks as a precautionary measure against the new coronavirus as they travel Wednesday through Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Passengers wear masks as a precautionary measure against the new coronavirus as they travel Wednesday through Guarulhos International Airport in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

With the rapid rise in reported cases of coronavirus around the world, travellers are reconsidering their 2020 vacation plans. For many, that means canceling trips. For others, it means looking into travel insurance.

“We’ve seen a huge spike in travel insurance purchases and call volume since the outbreak,” Jason Schreier, CEO of April Travel Protection, told HuffPost. “As awful as it sounds, when these kinds of things happen around the world, it absolutely is a boost to our business.”

In Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) announced on January 23 that coronavirus became a “known event” for insurance.

“If people are travelling and bought their travel insurance before it became a known event … the majority of travel insurance policies should cover people if they contract coronavirus overseas, or if their trips have to be moved around countries or places,” Lisa Kable, communications manager for the Insurance Council of Australia, told Guardian Australia.

“If you bought it after, most travel insurers exclude pandemic, epidemic disease or infectious disease or a known event.”

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Travel insurance can be a useful resource if you face a health emergency, such as contracting coronavirus, during a trip. If you are quarantined or fall ill, your standard trip cancellation or interruption...

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