THE woman who was struck by lightning at her home in Bao’an District on June 6 will receive a payout of up to 250,000 yuan (US$35,418) under the city’s government-funded catastrophe insurance policy, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported Thursday.

The woman’s vital signs are relatively stable after treatment, but the trauma is still serious. The woman suffers second to third-degree burns, as 38 percent of her body is burned.

The leading underwriting agencies of the catastrophe insurance, including the Shenzhen branch of PICC Health Insurance Co. Ltd. and UHO Insurance Brokerage Corp., contacted the woman’s family and visited the injured in the hospital Monday to learn about the treatment and medical expenses.

At present, the woman’s burns are still serious, according to the Daily. The woman’s family has paid 66,000 yuan in medical expenses after she was admitted to the hospital.

It is estimated that in the later stages, they will need to pay 45,000 yuan for the treatment every week, and her hospital stay is expected to be no less than one month.

“We will immediately compensate the victim for the medical fees already paid by her family, and we will also pay the subsequent treatment fees in batches and in a timely manner,” a representative with UHO Insurance Brokerage Corp. told the Daily.

After an investigation, it is preliminarily speculated that the accident happened when lightning struck a rainshed, forming a shock wave and causing a ball of lightning to enter the house.

Since 2014, Shenzhen has taken the lead in implementing a catastrophe insurance system in China. The insurance program, paid for by the city government, aims to ensure that all residents in the city can receive disaster relief insurance services in the case of a natural disaster.

Currently, the catastrophe insurance system covers 16 kinds of disasters, including storm, rainstorm, avalanche, lightning strike, flood, tornado, squall line, typhoon, debris flow, landslide, ground subsidence (ground caving in), hail, waterlogging, tsunami, forest fire, earthquakes with magnitude 4.5 or above, and secondary disasters caused by the above disasters.

(Zhang Yu)