Coronavirus – in which cases does the travel insurance provide?

Travel insurance protects you if you have to cancel your trip due to an unexpected and serious illness. This also applies if you fall ill with COVID-19 during your trip. 

It is crucial that you wash your hands thoroughly several times a day. You should not cough or sneeze into your hand but instead into your elbow or a tissue. Immediately dispose of such tissues in a closed bin and air out the space you are in for 5 to 10 minutes three times a day if possible. In addition, you should stay at home if you have a fever or cough.

Additional information is available in the HanseMerkur Health Portal

Current information on COVID-19 can be found on the website of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH)

Questions about the pandemic on the World Health Organization (WHO) site

Information on travel restrictions

The premium for cancellation insurance is not reimbursed if the tour is cancelled by the operator or if the tour does not take place due to a ban on entering the country of your destination. The protection provided by the cancellation insurance takes effect starting at the point in time at which the insurance was booked, so this benefit has already been provided. 
With the single-trip insurance packages Travel and Travel Premium, the benefits that apply from the start of the trip (medical expenses insurance, trip interruption insurance, etc.) are reimbursed on a pro rata basis.

In addition to unexpected and serious illness, the cancellation insurance also covers illness with COVID-19.

You are entitled to a reimbursement of payments already made to the tour operator, the hotel or the landlord of the holiday home. With cancellation insurance, cover is excluded due to the pandemic situation.

The Federal Council has issued a strong recommendation that all non-urgent travel to other countries be avoided, as there is a worldwide risk of infection with COVID-19. As the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on 11.03.2020, no insurance cover is provided for this. However, travel insurance still protects you in case of events that are not due to the pandemic and that are included in the insurance cover.

Please contact the respective service provider or tour operator to discuss additional options.

Every traveller has the right to withdraw from their trip, but tour operators and other service providers such as hotels and airlines are generally entitled to charge the cancellation fees agreed at the time the contract was concluded.

Trip interruption insurance protects you if you have to interrupt your trip due to an unexpected and serious illness, and this also applies if you are ill with COVID-19. However, fear of becoming ill or a high risk of infection do not constitute an insured event under travel interruption cover.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the current COVID-19 situation as a pandemic, the additional costs generally cannot be covered by the trip interruption insurance. If you are on a package holiday, please contact your tour operator, and if you booked the individual components of your holiday separately, please contact your service providers (hotel, airline, etc.).