Chennai, Apr 21 (IANS): The number of COVID-19 claims lodged with the non-life insurance companies are increasing only in arithmetical progression, said a senior insurance official.

He said as majority of those affected are treated in the government hospitals for free, the insurers are not affected by the claims.

"There number of claims lodged are increasing in arithmetic progression and not geometric progression. As on Monday the total claims lodged with the insurers are about 365. The claim value is about Rs 8.75 crore," the official told IANS preferring anonymity.

As per the numbers, the average claim per policy is about Rs 2.40 lakh.

Going by the trend, the COVID-19 may not be a catastrophic loss for the industry.

"The COVID-19 claim amount is nearly 2.5 times that of the average health insurance claim," S. Prakash, Managing Director, Star Health and Allied Insurance Company Ltd told IANS on Monday.

The industry official said Maharashtra tops in the claims lodged ranking followed by Delhi and Chennai.