USAA, the nation’s fifth-largest auto insurer, confirmed Tuesday it will keep covering COVID-19 auto cleaning through June 30.
“We're extending cleaning through June 30, 2021,” USAA spokeswoman Lara Hendrickson wrote within an email each day before what would have been the last day's such reimbursement.
This news follows at least one earlier date change. In January, a memo from USAA senior learning process consultant Jimmy Horner said the insurer had extended plans to cover the charges through March 31, 2021.
As of mid-February, this had remained USAA’s plan.
“Earlier this year, we extended sanitizing through March 31, 2021,” Hendrickson wrote Feb. 18. “We are monitoring COVID-19 safety implications with an ongoing basis, and will make necessary adjustments to plans if and when necessary for to keep our members, employees, suppliers and repair providers safe.”
The new extension through June 30 puts USAA’s timetable more in line with the White House’s objective of “getting the country nearer to normal by July 4th and plan to have sufficient vaccine for each American adult after spring.
Democratic President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a goal of 200 million vaccine shots in the first 100 days at work.
“With 200 million shots in the first 100 days, more than half of all adult Americans may have gotten a minumum of one shot by April 29th,” White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday, according to a White House transcript. The COVID-19 vaccines often require a two-shot regimen.
Zients said that “by the end of May we'll have enough vaccine for each adult in the U.S.,” based on the transcript.
NJM Insurance as late as Friday said the carrier would cease to pay for vehicle cleaning like a precaution against COVID-19 after March 31. However, , it too reported it would still purchase the operation “for the foreseeable future.”
“NJM has always paid a fee to possess vehicles cleaned upon the conclusion of repairs,” NJM said inside a statement Tuesday. “Over the past Twelve months, NJM has been paying one more cleaning fee associated with COVID-19. After further consideration, NJM has decided to continue make payment on additional COVID-19 vehicle cleaning fee for that foreseeable future.”
Horner in January wrote that USAA would cover 0.5 hours of body labor and $15 price of materials at drop-off and delivery to clean and disinfect vehicles. He explained customers could be reimbursed for the charge “upon request, or on estimates and supplements when vehicles delivered/dropped off for repair.”
“Miscellaneous expenses have grown from 5.7 percent of the overall spend in CY 2021 to 8 percent in CY 2021,” CCC wrote in the 2021 “Crash Course.” “COVID-19 introduced a brand new fee related to disinfecting the automobile – a fee often entered as a manual line and for that reason also rolled up in to the ‘Miscellaneous Amt.’ In Q1 2021, only 1.1 % of appraisals included a fee – by Q4 2021 it was over 30 %. The typical fee from March 2021 to December 2021 fell gradually, averaging $46 per appraisal over that point.”
The main COVID-19 threat is “respiratory droplets generated when people cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe,” according to the CDC, which continues to advise everyone to wear a mask in their workplace.
“Spread from touching surfaces is not regarded as a typical way that COVID-19 spreads,” based on the CDC.
Nevertheless, the company still advises workplaces to routinely sanitize surfaces to prevent the risk of COVID-19. Additionally, it has issued another set of cleaning and disinfecting guidelines when someone has been sick. Including using items in the Environmental Protection Agency “List N” of approved COVID-19 disinfecting products.
“Respiratory droplets may also land on surfaces and objects,” the CDC writes. “It is possible that a person could get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object which has herpes on it and then touching their own mouth, nose, or eyes.”
