Meanwhile, business travel has continued, albeit at a reduced rate, even as the FCDO advise against all but essential travel due to the pandemic. Businesses already have a duty of care to their employees whilst travelling on their behalf and the pandemic has magnified this. It has been impressive to see the levels of risk assessment and planning some companies have gone to in order to ensure they can conduct essential business trips in the safest possible manner.

Whilst vaccinations and continued observance of social distancing and hygiene guidelines have helped reduce cases, there is still an inherent risk of catching the virus. In these cases, businesses need to be sure they have a comprehensive cover which includes covid medical expenses and repatriation.

Our Protect+ corporate travel insurance includes some of the best coverage available in the market today, including medical expenses, trip curtailment, repatriation and even trip cancellation following the receipt of a positive test.

The policy also includes assistance from Healix International, who are a market leading medical assistance provider and whose services are available to all Protect+ policy holders. Healix have worked to protect travellers in the most unusual and dangerous situations for many years and focus on a medical led response to accidents and emergencies. They also provide assistance services to UK government personnel based overseas.

During the pandemic they had to arrange for the evacuation from Iraq of an Irish national with a suspected case of COVID. They managed to do this at the time when nations were closing their borders and unlikely to allow the entry of a foreign national who could be infected. They attempted to find nearby countries with the adequate level of care available and who would allow in individual entry, but in the end, they were forced to arrange repatriation to Ireland.

Once they had secured an air ambulance equipped with an isolation pod and arranged a ground ambulance equipped for covid patients they were able to repatriate the now critically ill patient to a respiratory centre of excellence in his home country within 49 hours.

We are delighted that we can provide our clients with access to such a quality assistance provider with a track record of fantastic health outcomes, even in the most challenging of circumstances.

The situation is still very fluid so for the latest information please follow us on LinkedIn or get in touch with the team.

Existing or new brokers can request a business travel quote by contacting the team on: