As many of you know, we have provided our own JWS Travel policy for several years now, for Inbound and Outbound travellers, to and from all parts of Africa. Since the Covid-19 pandemic most Insurers around the world have been forced to make changes to their travel insurance policies, and this applies to JWS as well. Sadly Covid-19 related claims are generally excluded, including the most important ones; medical and cancellation covers. We have been researching an alternative solution to our current travel policy and, whilst we are close, there remain some issues to resolve and we will update you on this in due course.

Over the past few months we have had several enquiries about a suitable travel insurance solution, and we have been asked to comment on the likes of the Covid-19 travel policies by Ethiad, Emirates, BA, Virgin, Battleface, Heymondo, Let’s Go, Trailfinders and a few others. In this communication, we cannot be specific about each of them, but please contact us if you have any questions regarding any of these travel covers as we are always happy to provide you with advice free of charge.

We welcome the efforts of all these travel insurance providers to come up with something that might be suitable, but in our opinion the wordings need to be checked carefully. Most policies now offer cover for Covid-19 related medical expenses, so if you contract Covid-19 whilst on your trip your medical costs will be met, subject to certain age limits and other terms and conditions. However, be careful as most of these policies still have an ‘advisory’ wording, wherein if one is travelling to a country where there is an ‘advisory’, then the cover is excluded. One underwriter is providing cancellation cover as a result of contracting Covid-19, but again not where there is an FCDO advisory. Sadly, this currently rules out most of the African continent.

So, in summary, whilst we are still able to provide our JWS Travel policy in its current form, the Covid-19 and ‘advisory’ exclusions do apply. There are some local options for Kenya ‘inbound’ and ‘outbound’ and out of them all the AIG policy is probably the best, but still falls short. We have produced the table below as a guide, but please note, this is subject to change, and we cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of this document, as often, we are not told of the change until afterwards.

The best advice I can give you is if you have any questions regarding the travel policy you are on or that you are looking into please contact us. We are happy to provide you with support and advice free of charge. 

If you have any questions related to any of the above please get in touch on [email protected] or +254 (0) 709 455026