Virus Exclusion Defeats Ohio Eye Care Practice’s COVID-19 Coverage Action

COLUMBUS, Ohio — An Ohio appellate court has upheld dismissal of an ophthalmologic practice’s COVID-19 coverage action against Harleysville Worchester Insurance Co., affirming that the claimed economic losses fall within the policy’s virus exclusion.

In a Dec. 15 opinion, the Ohio Court of Appeals, 10th District, found the exclusion applies even if a virus is an indirect cause of the policyholder’s loss.

Eye Specialists of Delaware (ESD) owns three ophthalmologic practices in Dover, Del. ESD temporarily closed in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic in compliance with government orders requiring medical practitioners to stop providing non-emergency, elective procedures. ESD turned …