(TNS) — As forecasters predict higher-than-normal chances of large fires in Northern California this year — as well as the usual risk of “large significant” burning in Southern California — fire authorities are growing increasingly concerned over their ability to muster a large, healthy force of firefighters in the face of COVID-19.

Realizing that wildfire smoke will steadily impair a firefighter’s immune system, and that traditional base camps can magnify the risk of infection, federal, state and county officials are urging a blitzkrieg approach to wildfires that will rely heavily on the use of aircraft.

Munich Re said on Thursday it expected to receive claims for canceled or postponed events because of the coronavirus crisis in excess of 1 billion euros ($1.08 billion) this year after it posted a 65% drop in first-quarter profit.

The German reinsurer, which joins a raft of insurers warning of threats to their business, had already said it would not meet a profit target this year.

(TNS) - Working from home with her children in another room and a cat lounging next to her laptop, Christina Zilke is a public-health nurse on the front lines of trying to contain COVID-19.

She is one of about 20 employees of the Washtenaw County Public Health Department currently involved in contact-tracing, which is the process of reaching out to individual coronavirus patients to stymie the chain of infection.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced that workers who contract COVID-19 while on the job may be eligible to receive workers’ compensation.

The governor signed an executive order that creates a time-limited rebuttable presumption for accessing workers’ comp benefits applicable to Californians who must work outside of their homes during the stay at home order.

(TNS) — When Jorge Newbery finally got through to his 95-year-old mother, Jennifer, on a video call April 18, she could barely talk or move and her eyes couldn’t focus.

It was the first time he had seen her since California nursing homes shut their doors to visitors a month earlier. Immediately after the video chat, Newbery called the front desk in a panic.

“I said, ‘You gotta get her out, you gotta call 911,’ ” he recalled. “She’s looking like she’s about to die.”

The California Department of Insurance issued a cease and desist order on Omega Vehicle Services LLC, doing business as Delta Auto Protect, and its controlling manager, Charles Seruya, for allegedly selling illegal vehicle service contracts to over twenty California consumers.

The order alleges both Delta Auto Protect and Seruya were not licensed by the CDI and improperly denied claims, illegally sold contracts they did not first file with the department directly to consumers, and used an unapproved backup insurer.

The California Catastrophe Response Council, which oversees the Wildfire Fund, has formally named the California Earthquake Authority the fund’s administrator.

The Wildfire Fund was established by the California Legislature, under Assembly Bill 1054 and Assembly Bill 111, and was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom on July 12, 2019. At that time, CEA was designated the fund’s interim administrator until the nine-member California Catastrophe Response Council could be formed and appoint an administrator.

THE KEY CHALLENGE: LEARNING ON THE FLY
The devastating COVID-19 outbreak has created a new and common challenge for many governments: how to plan and implement a safe transition from lockdown conditions and reopen societies and economies. Jurisdictions are operating on their own, often with widely varying timelines. Some are still in the midst of the crisis, some are preparing to exit and some have already done just that. Other countries have never been formally locked down. These varying timelines and approaches collectively constitute a rich experience catalogue, but they also share the common purpose of finding a viable path back to normality.

Although the majority of cases of the coronavirus have occurred in bigger cities, rural areas aren’t immune. In fact, infectious disease experts in some of those communities are reporting a steady increase in cases and predict a long, sustained outbreak for weeks and maybe months.

That was the message from speakers on an online media briefing hosted by the Infectious Disease Society of America this week, which featured a discussion about the coronavirus in rural America.

California’s State Compensation Insurance Fund on Monday announced another series of actions designed to support policyholders and workers affected by the COVID-19 crisis, including doubling the size of its newly announced Essential Business Support Fund announced earlier this week to $50 million.

Since the fund was announced last week, State Fund said it has received more than 700 applications for COVID-19 workplace safety support funds. The first several payments, all at the maximum $10,000 reimbursement, were sent to qualified applicants on Monday.