The underwriting room and other public areas will also get a deep clean 

Lloyd’s of London has announced its plans to close its underwriting room for 24 hours from midnight on Friday 13 March to test emergency trading protocols as the coronavirus outbreak continues. 

It aims to stress test market and corporation resilience, as well as ensure that the market can continue trading if the underwriting room needs to be closed at any point.

It will also ramp up business continuity preparations to provide reassurance for the market, employees and its customers in the event of an escalation of contingency measures due to coronavirus also known as Covid-19.

Other measures include a 24-hour exercise which it hopes will provide valuable information on the real-life effectiveness of the protocol – the relevant regulators have been informed of these plans.

In addition to this Lloyd’s will also take the opportunity to deep clean the underwriting room and all public areas.

The market has also set up an email address as a point of contact for policyholders to assist with claims and help customers find the right person to confirm cover.