Hefei International Talent City is a talent service center in the Hefei National High-tech Industrial Development Zone. [Photo/WeChat account: hefeigaoxinfabu]

Many micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are encountering difficulties as they try to resume work while still remaining vigilant of epidemic prevention and control efforts.

To ease pressure on the companies, Hefei International Talent City announced on March 6 that it has partnered with a domestic insurance company to offer epidemic insurance.

The insurance will pay enterprises if their employees cannot work due to notifiable infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

Four insurance plans are available to enterprises on the Hechuang voucher platform. Enterprises can use their Hechuang voucher to pay half of the premium.

A Hechuang voucher is a redeemable electronic voucher designed and issued by the Hefei National High-tech Industrial Development Zone which can be used to pay for transactions between certificated enterprises and qualified technology and service providers, as the latter can cash out the voucher at the zone’s government.

An upgraded version of the plan will pay up to 2 million yuan ($288,088) to enterprises that are forced to shut down due to notifiable infectious diseases and have paid a premium of 80,000 yuan.

The coverage includes quarantine fees, employee salaries, diagnosis allowance, hospitalization allowance and death insurance money.

A basic version of the plan only requires a premium of 5,000 yuan but can pay up to 200,000 yuan.

The plan will pay quarantine fees of up to 1,000 yuan per employee. The maximum monthly loss per employee will be 4,000 yuan. If the employee's salary is below 4,000 yuan, it will be paid based on their actual wage for a 14-day quarantine period.