Latest COVID-19 Headlines
All the headlines from our COVID-19 Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Global COVID-19 Cases at Record High, as Omicron Variant Races Out of Control
Dec 29 2021 // SYDNEY/ROME – Global COVID-19 infections hit a record high over the past seven-day period, Reuters data showed on Wednesday, as the new Omicron variant raced out of control, keeping workers at home and overwhelming...
Study Finds Pandemic Lockdowns Only Work for a Limited Time
Dec 28 2021 // As the world struggles to contain the spread of COVID-19, many countries grapple with the possibility of imposing more lockdown measures, like those widely used in the spring of 2020. But how well do lockdowns work at...
Workplace Fatalities Fell 10.7% During Pandemic in 2020 But Severe Illness Cases Rose
Dec 27 2021 // During the pandemic, worker deaths decreased by 10.7% in 2020 compared to 2019, with 4,764 fatal workplace injuries, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in its annual report on workplace fatalities for 2020. This...
Supreme Court to Take Up COVID Mandate Jan. 7
Dec 27 2021 // The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Jan. 7 on whether the Biden administration can order workers at private companies and health care employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19. Until the court rules, millions of...
Unions Say Meat Plants Relaxed COVID-19 Safety Measures After Outbreaks
Dec 26 2021 // Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, last year assigned a team of dedicated employees to enforce social distancing and sanitize surfaces at a South Dakota slaughterhouse where COVID-19 infected nearly...
Berkshire’s Candymaker Must Face Worker’s Suit Over Husband’s COVID Death: California Court
Dec 22 2021 // A California candymaker must face a lawsuit by an employee who says she caught COVID-19 at work and gave it to her husband, resulting in his death, a state appeals court held on Tuesday, upholding what appeared to be the...
COVID-19 to Cut UK Life Expectancy by 9 Months: RBC Analysts
Dec 21 2021 // The coronavirus pandemic is seen cutting life expectancy in the UK by nine months, Royal Bank of Canada analysts said, helping to reverse trends of longevity. The estimate from insurance stock analysts Gordon Aitken and...
Medical Boards Under Pressure to Discipline Doctors Pushing False Covid-19 Claims
Dec 21 2021 // They have decried COVID-19 as a hoax, promoted unproven treatments and pushed bogus claims about the vaccine, including that the shots magnetize the human body. The purveyors of this misinformation are not shadowy figures...
Indiana Lawmakers Consider Vaccine Limits as COVID Surges
Dec 20 2021 // Some Indiana doctors and health experts warned last week that a Republican-backed proposal aimed at limiting workplace COVID-19 vaccination requirements would hurt efforts to stem the illness as the state’s hospitals...
M&A Insurance Rates Nearly Double After Explosion of Dealmaking During Pandemic
Dec 20 2021 // The cost of insurance to cover problems involving M&A has nearly doubled in just two years, underwriters and brokers said, after an explosion of global dealmaking during the COVID-19 pandemic. Potential buyers take out...
Returning to the Office During a Pandemic
Dec 20 2021 // There’s no question that the COVID-19 pandemic will have a lasting impact on the workforce. It has caused millions of businesses and employees to shift to a virtual work environment. But as the COVID-19 vaccine...
National Insurance Industry Council Pressed on Through Pandemic to Help City of Hope
Dec 20 2021 // Insurance and fundraising are both people-facing endeavors, so one would think that COVID-19, with all of its lockdowns and distancing, would have killed the giving spirit for a charitable group like the National Insurance...
The COVID Era: Finding Opportunity in Times of Hardship
Dec 20 2021 // The COVID-19 pandemic isn’t a short-term event. That’s obvious. But the question should no longer be — “when will it end?” As a practical matter, it’s not going to end. When we ask the...
Court OKs Biden Covid Vaccine Mandate for Employers; Supreme Court Appeal Likely
Dec 19 2021 // A federal appeals court panel on Friday allowed President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for larger private employers to move ahead, reversing a previous decision on a requirement that could affect some 84...
Amid COVID, Insurance Regulation Remains Profitable
Dec 19 2021 // This post is part of an Insurance Journal blog presenting the work and viewpoints of The International Center for Law & Economics. The COVID-19 pandemic hit state budgets particularly hard in 2020, with a $24.11...
Millions of Migrants Can’t Get COVID Vaccines Because of Drugmakers’ Liability Fears
Dec 16 2021 // BRUSSELS/BANGKOK – Tens of millions of migrants may be denied COVID-19 vaccines from a global program because some major manufacturers are worried about legal risks from harmful side effects, according to officials and...
London Turns Into Ghost Town as UK Faces Record-Breaking Wave of COVID Infections
Dec 16 2021 // The owner of Parlez, a pub and restaurant in south London, hoped that sales this Christmas would have bounced back fully from last winter’s COVID-19 lockdown. Instead, every one of this week’s group...
Workers’ Comp Bureau of California Issues COVID-19 Analysis
Dec 16 2021 // The Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California in collaboration with several other workers’ comp rating bureaus released the COVID-19’s Impact on Workers Compensation report. To better...
NFL Requiring Coaches, Team Staffs to Get COVID-19 Boosters; Players Exempt
Dec 15 2021 // The NFL is requiring coaches, front-office staff and team personnel to receive a COVID-19 booster by Dec. 27. In a memo sent to teams on Monday and obtained by The Associated Press, the league said: “Given the...
EEOC Addresses When COVID-19 May Be a Disability Requiring Accommodation
Dec 15 2021 // An applicant or employee whose COVID-19 results in mild symptoms that resolve in a few weeks—with no other consequences—will not have a disability that could make someone eligible to receive a reasonable accommodation,...
