A customer has his temperature taken during a screening outside a Cafe de Jargor restaurant during its first day of operations in Hong Kong, China, on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2020. Chan Long Hei | Bloomberg Getty Images

Insurers in China will likely be able to manage the economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak, according to multiple analysts. Hong Kong-listed shares of insurers have seen some choppy trading sessions since returning from the Lunar New Year holidays last week. Since their last close before the start of the Lunar New Year, China's Ping An saw its stock drop more than 5% and China Life Insurance plummet more than 7%. Shares of AIA have also fallen more than 4% at the close of Tuesday's trading. In a note dated Jan. 30, Fitch Ratings said it "expects the recent outbreak of novel coronavirus infections to put some pressure on Chinese insurers' profitability in the near term, but that earnings pressure will be manageable." Echoing the view of the ratings agency, analysts at Nomura said in note on Jan. 31: "We think direct claim losses for insurance companies will be manageable." Three reasons were cited to support this view.

At this point, I think the effect on the insurers is still very limited. On the macro scale, it's still just a very small proportion of the whole population. Kevin Leung Haitong International Securities

Firstly, claims surrounding the virus outbreak should mainly be covered by commercial health insurance, a sector it described as "still under-penetrated and does not account for a big portion of the overall business, the analysts said. Secondly, the Chinese government has already announced it will cover the excess cost above the existing insurance policy amount, they said. China's National Health and Ministry of Finance announced Thursday a slew of measures that the central government will take to subsidize virus-related costs. Finally, reinsurance arrangements could partially cover claim losses for direct insurers, they concluded. "At this point, I think the effect on the insurers is still very limited," said Kevin Leung, executive director of investment strategy at Haitong International Securities. "On the macro scale, it's still just a very small proportion of the whole population."