Digit Insurance introduces one cover for 8 viral diseases including COVID-19 and Dengue

Digit Insurance has introduced its latest offering under Digit’s Illness Group Insurance that will protect an individual against hospitalization bills arising out of COVID-19 and 7 Vector-borne diseases like dengue, malaria, filariasis (payable only once in a lifetime), kala azar, chikungunya, Japanese encephalitis and the zika virus. One will be covered for hospitalization expenses if one is diagnosed with and hospitalized solely for any of the specified diseases and even for COVID-19.

Digit’s cover for COVID-19 and Vector-borne disease policy also covers pre-hospitalisation expenses for up to 30 days, post-hospitalisation expenses up to 60 days, road ambulance charges (1 per cent of your chosen sum insured, up to Rs 5,000) and a second medical opinion. The product is currently available on Digit’s website and offers options of choosing sum insured of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh or Rs 3 lakh.

The plan has been launched under Digit’s Illness Group product under the Sandbox regulations which encourages insurance companies to launch innovative products.

In its statement, the company states that according to the WHO (World Health Organisation), vector-borne diseases account for 17 per cent of all infectious diseases and leads to 700,000 deaths every year, worldwide. India has a long history of malaria due to both its large population and climatic conditions. 2018 alone saw 429,928 cases of malaria and 96 malaria deaths! Hence, it is important to have an insurance policy that covers these diseases.