Virus Exclusion Applies to Daycare’s COVID-10 Losses, Pa. Federal Judge Rules

PITTSBURGH — A Pennsylvania federal judge has dismissed a daycare’s COVID-19 insurance action, ruling the policy’s virus exclusion unambiguously bars coverage for all loss caused by or resulting from the pandemic.

On March 16, Judge Karoline Mehalchick of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania rejected the daycare’s argument that the exclusion does not apply because its losses were caused by government orders limiting its operations, rather than the virus itself.

“Courts in the Third Circuit have held that a claim of loss due to governmental civil authority orders ‘cannot circumvent the Virus Exclusion, as the closure …