Lexington County small businesses forced to close won’t get much support from insurance companies.

More “non-essential” stores have been ordered to close, hotels have closed due to low occupancy and though restaurants can stay open for carry-out, many have called it quits.

When owners check their business interruption policies, they may not like what they see, the Charleston Post and Courier reported.

Insurance carriers have excluded financial losses due to the pandemics since the SARS outbreak.

They tell business owners the pandemic doesn’t qualify as a covered “act of God.”

Virus-related losses may cost US small businesses $220-$383 billion a month, according to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

That amounts to about half of the insurance industry’s surplus to pay property and casualty claims.

18 members of Congress, including US Rep. Joe Cunningham who represents South Carolina’s 1st District, sent a letter to insurance companies urging them “to recognize financial loss due to covid-19 as part of policyholders’ business interruption coverage.”

But the insurance executives who received the letter didn’t find their argument convincing. The elected officials’ proposal could lead to “catastrophic results” and a “second crisis,” one of them told Insurance Journal.

Some states plan laws to require insurers to cover virus-related claims.

In New Jersey, legislators are considering a bill that would require pandemics to be included in business interruption coverage for policies in force March 9.

South Carolina should consider similar legislation, said State Sen. Sandy Senn, who serves on the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee. Businesses’ claims should not be “denied on a technicality.”