The rumors that were spreading Tuesday were true: The National Association of Insurance Commissioners is canceling the in-person version of its spring national meeting due to concerns about the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes Covid-19 pneumonia.
Resources
- A copy of the NAIC’s in-person event cancellation announcement is available here.
- An article about other SARS-CoV-2-related in-person event cancellations is available here.
The Kansas City, Missouri-based regulator group was preparing to start the meeting March 21 in Phoenix.
Mike Consedine, the NAIC’s chief executive officer, said today in a tweet that the NAIC will be moving the meeting proceedings to a virtual format.
“The important work will continue, but we’ll now have to work smarter and safer,” Consedine said in the tweet. “Like it or not, just as 9/11 did, #coronavirus has forever changed the world we live and work in.”
The NAIC already holds many meetings through teleconferences.
The NAIC outlined the following virtual session schedule:
- Working groups and subgroups will meet through conference calls from March 16 through March 31.
- Task forces will meet through conference calls in early April.
- Top-level committees will meet through conference calls the week of April 13.
- The Executive Committee and the Plenary, the body that includes all voting members of the NAIC, will meet through a public conference call April 20.
- The NAIC will hold a public virtual meeting on states responses’ to the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak at 11 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time March 20.
The NAIC is a group for state insurance regulators. Its members are the top insurance regulators from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories.