LONDON, (Reuters) – Insurance brokers Howden stated Tuesday that $44 billion in insured losses from COVID-19 have so far ranked third among all catastrophe costs, after Hurricane Katrina, and the attacks of September 11.

Howden stated that initial estimates of COVID-19 insured loss losses in excess of $100 billion are now “improbable” and he made this statement in a report about reinsurance renewals.

Industry experts made this prediction in early stages of the pandemic, almost two years ago. Events were cancelled around the globe and many businesses had to close down.

Since then, COVID-19 has been removed from most policies by insurance companies.

“There’s only so much event cancellation coverage out there, there’s only so much civil action coverage out there, and when you get to $40 billion, that’s pretty much exhausting what was underwritten,” said David Flandro, head of analytics at Howden.

Howden said that property catastrophe insurance rates rose 9% annually on Jan. 1. This was the largest increase in annual growth since 2009, as well.

Insurance companies are insured by reinsurers. Reinsurance rate increases are usually passed onto customers.

Guy Carpenter, an independent reinsurance broker said that global property catastrophe reinsurance rates increased by 10.8% in average this year.

Gallagher Re stated Tuesday earlier that European property reinsurance rates have risen by over 50% following record-breaking insured losses in the region last year due to natural disasters like floods or storms.