As a Board Member and the Owner of an Insurance Agency, there has been in-flux of questions regarding business interruption coverage and if it would come into play due to Coronavirus. Below are a few bullet points that should help in navigating these questions:

• We’ve heard two common questions:

1. Does Business Interruption Coverage apply due to a decrease in patronage for the business as a result of the virus?

      a. There has to be a covered loss to trigger business interruption coverage; if there is not        a covered loss, there would not be a trigger for the interruption coverage.

      b. The specific scenario outlined above (customer traffic is down due to a concern with            the virus, creating a decrease in sales) would not trigger business interruption because a        decrease in customers is not a covered loss.

2. Does Business Interruption Coverage apply if a city is quarantined and the business cannot function and/or the owner, nor patrons can even make it to the business?

     a. This gets back to there has to be a direct physical loss at our location or at a                     “dependent property” location caused by a covered loss. Section I Exclusions includes            Governmental Action, so if a city is quarantined due to governmental action, it still does          not cause direct physical loss NOR is it a covered loss, so coverage would NOT apply.

Most all Insurance Companies follow the same action. I hope this help answers a few of your questions.