Indian insurtech startup Digit Insurance introduced a new product for coronavirus. With premiums starting at ₹299, the startup is calling it need-based insurance cover.

A person who is tested positive can claim 100% of the insurance, while those quarantined can claim 50% of the sum insured. The coverage can go upto ₹2 lakh while it starts at ₹25,000.

In pics: Coronavirus outbreak

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1/44 SLIDES © Alaa al-Marjani/Reuters
Passengers wear protective face masks at the airport, following the outbreak of the coronavirus, in Najaf, Iraq on March 5.
2/44 SLIDES © Laurel Chor/Getty Images
An almost empty British Airways passenger plane flies from Milan to London on March 5, in Milan, Italy. 
3/44 SLIDES © Mussa Qawasma/Reuters
A man wearing a mask as a preventive measure against the coronavirus gestures as he speaks with a Palestinian policeman outside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on March 5. The Church is to temporarily close after a suspected outbreak of coronavirus, the Palestinian health ministry announced.
4/44 SLIDES © Aly Song/Reuters
A baby wearing a face mask inside a stroller is seen in Shanghai, China on March 5.
 
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Thai officials prepare sets of face masks and hand sanitizers for sale at the Government Pharmaceutical Organization (GPO) pharmacy in Bangkok, Thailand on March 5. 
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A man uses his phone to take photographs of posters explaining the symptoms of coronavirus inside hospital premises in Kolkata, India on March 5.
7/44 SLIDES © Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters
Postal workers disinfect packages from overseas to contain the spread of coronavirus in Bangkok, Thailand on March 5.
8/44 SLIDES © Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo
In the aftermath of the state's first death from the coronavirus, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide emergency to deal with the virus at a news conference in Sacramento on March 4.
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A man wearing a protective mask walks in Jerusalem, Israel on March 4.
 
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President Donald Trump, with Vice President Mike Pence, speaks during a coronavirus briefing with Airline CEOs in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March 4 in Washington D.C.
11/44 SLIDES © Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Thai monks wearing masks arrive from India at Suvarnabhumi International airport on March 4 in Bangkok, Thailand.
12/44 SLIDES © Zick Maulana/NurPhoto/Getty Images
An Indonesian health worker wearing protective gear inspects quarantine rooms at a hospital in Aceh, Indonesia on March 4.
13/44 SLIDES © Marco Canoniero/LightRocket/Getty Images
Juventus stadium closed to fans for 30 days, due to the Italian government's decision to play matches in the Italian Serie A championship without fans, to contain the spread of the coronavirus in Torino, Italy on March 4.
14/44 SLIDES © Spencer Platt/Getty Images
A couple shops with surgical masks as fears of the coronavirus spreading through the U.S. increase on March 4 in New York City.
 
15/44 SLIDES © Juan Diego Montenegro/Picture Alliance/Getty Images
An employee of the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health wearing a mask and protective clothing takes a man's temperature on March 4.
16/44 SLIDES © Ahn Young-joon/AP Photo
Army soldiers wearing protective suits spray disinfectant as a precaution against coronavirus at a shopping street in Seoul, South Korea on March 4.
17/44 SLIDES © Harish Tyagi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Indian security guards wearing protective masks stand inside a private school that was closed over fear of a coronavirus outbreak, in Noida, India on March 4. The school was closed after some students and teachers attended the birthday party of a boy whose father tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling back from Italy.
18/44 SLIDES © Heo Ran/Reuters
Employees from a disinfection service company sanitize a KTX train at Seoul Railway Station on March 4.
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President Donald Trump is flanked by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and National Institutes of Health Doctor Kizzmekia Corbett, research fellow at the NIH Vaccine Research Center, as he listens to Director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci following a briefing at the Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland on March 3.
20/44 SLIDES © James Veysey/Shutterstock
A shop offering people free hand washing on Oxford Street in London, England on March 3.
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A passenger originating from China has his body temperature taken upon arrival on an international flight as he waits to be screened for signs of the coronavirus at Entebbe Airport in Entenbbe, Uganda on March 3.
22/44 SLIDES © Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
A sign at a Boots chemist after the retailer ran out of hand sanitizer on March 3 in Cardiff, Wales.
23/44 SLIDES © Paula Bronstein/Getty Images
Tourists wearing protective masks visit the Shwedagon pagoda on March 3 in Yangon, Myanmar.
24/44 SLIDES © Waltraud Grubitzsch/Picture Alliance/Getty Images
In the Central Medical Laboratory of the St. Georg Hospital in Leipzig, Germany, a medical-technical assistant prepares patient samples for coronavirus testing on March 3.
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A medical staff member checks information of a patient as patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus leave from Wuhan No. 5 Hospital to Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built hospital for the COVID-19 coronavirus patients on March 3.
26/44 SLIDES © Corinna Kern/Reuters
Paramedics in protective suits and Israelis wearing masks and gloves stand near a dedicated polling station where people under quarantine from the coronavirus can vote in Israel's national election, in Tel Aviv, on Mar. 2.
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Harborview Medical Center's home assessment team, including (L to R) Michelle Steik, Lucy Greenfield, and Krista Reitberg prepare to visit the home of a person potentially exposed to novel coronavirus, at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington on Feb. 29.
28/44 SLIDES © Prakash Mathema/AFP/Getty Images
Health workers wearing protective gear check Nepali citizens evacuated from China as they are under quarantine following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Nepal, on Feb. 29.
29/44 SLIDES © Jean-Claude Coutausse/Reuters
French government officials, including French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian (1st-L), French Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire (2nd-L), French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (3rd-L), French Health and Solidarity Minister Olivier Veran (4th-L) and French President Emmanuel Macron (3rd-R) attend a defense council concerning the coronavirus outbreak, in Paris, France, on Feb. 29.
30/44 SLIDES © Borja Suarez/Reuters
A tourist affected by coronavirus is transferred to a hospital from the hotel H10 Costa Adeje Palace, which is on lockdown after novel coronavirus has been confirmed in Adeje, on island of Tenerife, Spain, on Feb. 29.
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Employees work on the production line of an antimalarial drug that Chinese officials said has curative effect on the novel coronavirus disease, at a pharmaceutical company in Nantong, Jiangsu province, China, on Feb. 27. 
32/44 SLIDES © Liu Zhongjun/China News Service/Getty Images
Doctors at West China Hospital of Sichuan University use 5G technology to diagnose COVID-19 patients on Feb. 27, in Chengdu, Sichuan Province of China. 
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Hugo Lopez-Gatell Ramirez, Mexico's Undersecretary of Health Prevention and Promotion, holds a news conference on information about the new coronavirus, in Mexico City, on Feb. 27.
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Passengers remain onboard the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship in Cozumel, Mexico, on Feb. 27.  A cruise carrying 6,000 people which was turned away by Jamaica and the Cayman Islands after a crew member tested positive for flu, has docked in Mexico. 
35/44 SLIDES © Lisi Niesner/Reuters
Policemen guard the entrance of a school, after authorities put the school under isolation because of suspicions of a coronavirus case, after a teacher returned from a travel in Northern Italy, in Vienna, Austria on Feb. 26
36/44 SLIDES © Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images
Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan is seen on a screen as he delivers the annual budget at the legislative council in Hong Kong on Feb. 26. Hong Kong's government said it will give a 10,000 HKD (1,280 USD) handout to seven million permanent residents in a bid to jump-start a recession-hit economy after the coronavirus outbreak.
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Figures depicting the coronavirus vs "carneval virus" are pictured during the "Rosenmontag" (Rose Monday) parade on Feb. 24 in Duesseldorf, Germany.
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A man collects bags of his food order as a worker places it in a basket to prevent human contact following the coronavirus outbreak, in Beijing, on Feb. 23.
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Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers pose during an emergency meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the coronavirus outbreak in Vientiane, Laos, on Feb. 20.
40/44 SLIDES © Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters
A man holds a Ukrainian state flag during a protest against the arrival of a plane carrying evacuees from China's Hubei province hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the village of Novi Sanzhary in Poltava region, Ukraine, on Feb. 20.
41/44 SLIDES © Lakruwan Wanniarachchi/AFP/Getty Images
A Chinese tourist (front right), who was tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus and was isolated for treatment, receives a kiss from Sri Lankan Health Minister Pavithra Wanniarachchi and medical staff after she was discharged from the hospital near Colombo on Feb. 19. The 43-year-old woman, the first and only COVID-19 patient in Sri Lanka, was admitted to the hospital on January 25 and tested positive for COVID-19 two days later.
42/44 SLIDES © STR/AFP/Getty Images

Workers go about their duties at a section of the Leishenshan Hospital, the newly-built makeshift hospital for novel coronavirus patients, in Wuhan in China's central Hubei province on Feb. 18. The first group of patients infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus was discharged from Leishenshan Hospital on Feb. 18, according to local media. 

43/44 SLIDES © John Amis/AP Photo
Jay Butler, Deputy Director for Infectious Diseases addresses the media about response to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19 ) as Senior Adviser Ed Rouse looks on, at the Emergency Operations Center inside The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Feb. 13 in Atlanta.
44/44 SLIDES © Alissa Eckert, Ms; Dan Higgins, MAM / CDC/ HANDOUT / Reuters

The ultrastructural morphology exhibited by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), which was identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness first detected in Wuhan, China, is seen in an illustration released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, on Jan. 29.

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“We are offering this as a flat benefit cushion cover, for both positive and quarantined cases. While for positive cases we pay 100%, 50% of sum insured is paid for quarantined cases so that even in the smallest way possible, it compensates for the loss of income during this period,” said Kamesh Goyal, Chairman, Digit Insurance.

For quarantined cases, even if the test is negative, people will get 50% of the sum insured as it covers screenings and tests.

Indians who were air-lifted from Wuhan amid coronavirus outbreak © Vipin Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images Indians who were air-lifted from Wuhan amid coronavirus outbreak

Digit Insurance is also offering a fixed benefit cover with no need for hospital bills.

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“It is unfortunate to contract an infection for which treatments are still in the trial phases. In such a time, we saw this cover to be the need of the hour. We understand that at such a devastating time, customers wouldn’t want to be stuck doing paperwork and running around to raise money to pay for the multiple screening and treatment tests,” said Goyal.

The insurance product has been filed under insurance regulator IRDAI’s sandbox regulations that encourage insurers to launch and test innovative product offerings.

India has been under the threat of coronavirus, with six confirmed cases and six more quarantined. The National capital Delhi is in the eye of the storm as a person from Mayur Vihar tested positive, and the six quarantined cases are linked back to him. Two schools in Noida were shut amid the epidemic scare.

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ALSO ON MSN:

Stop touching your face! (The New York Times) 

How India is bolstering its quarantine facilities (Hindustan Times)

For more information and guidance on coronavirus (COVID-19) click here 

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Digit Insurance, was founded by Goyal in 2016 and is backed by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax group. Watsa had pumped in $140 million into the insurtech startup. In May 2019, it was reported that Fairfax might invest more into the startup.

The startup was also listed in the global Fintech 250 list by CB Insights, being the only Indian company to do so.

Follow the government's latest travel advice if you are planning a trip outside India or travelling back to India from affected areas. You can also read World Health Organization's advice on basic protective measures against the virus. The Ministry of Health's special helpline is available at +91-11-23978046 and ncov2019@gmail.com


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