MB Subba

The Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan Limited (RICBL) will provide free life insurance coverage of Nu 100,000 for all Covid-19 front-line workers.

The “free life insurance for frontline heroes” applies to any person on the frontline duty fighting to stop the spread of Covid-19.

One of the most convenient features of the insurance programme is that persons on the Covid-19 frontline need not register with RICBL for the insurance scheme.

If a Covid-19 person loses his or her life, the nominee will receive the insurance upon the relevant agency such as the Royal Bhutan Army (RBA), the Royal Bhutan Police (RBP) and DeSuups validating that the deceased was on Covid-19 duty.

Health professionals and air services workers are among the high-risk Covid-19 frontline workers who are eligible for the life insurance upon the relevant agencies validating that they lost the life on Covid-19 duty.

According to RICBL officials, the reason of the death of the frontline workers could be anything, including Covid-19 infection and accidents, so long as they were on Covid-19 duty.

However, the scheme will not be applicable to any members of general public who dies because of Covid-19 infection.

“The initiative evolved from the overwhelming and unrelenting efforts led by His Majesty The King, the prime minister, other leaders and the self-less Bhutanese working tirelessly to fight Covid-19,” said CEO of RICBL, Karma.

He said that RICBL came up with free life insurance as an appreciation and part of its participation in the fight against Covid-19.

For now, the RICBL has announced that the insurance scheme will remain for six months. But the CEO added that the scheme would be extended beyond six months if the Covid-19 pandemic lasts beyond six months.

“I have written to RBA, RBP, and DeSuung among others on the availability of the insurance scheme,” he said.

Bhutan’s efforts to fight Covid-19 have remained successful as of today as no local transmission has been detected. The country has 21 Covid-19 cases, all of which are imported.

Unlike most countries, Bhutan has extended the quarantine period from two weeks to 21 days.

So far, close to 6,500 people have returned home from 35 countries, a majority of which came via flight and the rest by land transport through border areas in southern Bhutan.

The highest among the returnees are students—3,430, followed by those working abroad—1,102.

And 128 returnees are foreign nationals working in international organizations in Bhutan, as per the records with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

India saw the largest outflow of Bhutanese—2,568. Two Bhutanese returned from the Philippines.

More than 890 Bhutanese returned from the Middle East.