Insurer Not Liable for Dental Practice’s COVID-19 Losses, Fla. Federal Judge Rules

TAMPA, Fla. — Allied Insurance Company of America is not required to cover business interruption losses sustained by a dental practice when COVID-19 civil authority orders barred it from performing anything but emergency procedures, a Florida federal judge has ruled, finding the policy’s virus exclusion applies.

In a Sept. 2 order, Judge John Badalamenti of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida concluded that because the practice’s damages resulted from COVID-19, which is clearly a virus, neither the orders nor the disinfection of the dental office is a “Covered Cause of Loss” under the plain language of …