Under Indiana law, coronavirus can be considered an occupational disease or even incurred by accident but it must be shown to have been occasioned or incurred as a result of the specific risks, dangers, and hazards of one’s employment. The case that best explains this is Schwitzer-Cummins Co. v. Hacker, 112 N.E.2d 221 (Ind. Ct. App. 1953). In the case, the Court of Appeals recognized that an “ordinary disease,” which may be contracted by the general public “under usual and ordinary circumstances” is compensable, if the particular claimant’s disease did not arise from such usual and ordinary circumstances but instead were due to hazards of employment. As the Court concluded, “The question is not whether the workman has a disease which is more or less common to others of the general public, but whether the particular conditions of his work were such as to cause and did cause him to acquire the disease.” (emphasis added).
This requires expert opinion to show that work caused exposure and infection.
