  The crisis caused by COVID-19 revealed the global unpreparedness to handle
the impact of a pandemic. In this paper, we present a statistical analysis of
the data related to the COVID-19 outbreak in China, specifically the infection
speed, death and fatality rates in Hubei province. By fitting distributions of
these quantities we design a parametric reinsurance contract whose trigger and
cap are based on the probability distributions of the infection speed, death
and fatality rates. In particular, fitting the distribution for the infection
speed and death rates we provide a measure of the effectiveness of a state's
action during an epidemic, and propose a reinsurance contract as a supplement
to a state's social insurance to alleviate financial costs.
