CNA Insurance Must Partially Cover Hospital’s Covid-19 Losses

A CNA Financial Corp. unit failed to convince a federal appeals court that a Massachusetts hospital should be denied communicable disease insurance coverage for Covid-19-related losses.

Although Lawrence General Hospital can’t tap into property damage coverage for up to $563 million, its losses from complying with government closure orders during the pandemic are covered by a $1 million health-care decontamination provision in the “all risk” commercial property policy sold by Continental Casualty Co., the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit said.

“There is no dispute that COVID-19 is a communicable disease,” the court said Wednesday, reversing ...