Ski slopes with limited numbers in the Aosta Valley. This is the main novelty that affects the region that has become orange for having passed all the critical indicators, such as the high number of infections and hospitalizations. Herbert Tovagliari, president and CEO of Cervino Spa, the company that manages the plants of Breuil-Cervinia, Valtournenche, Torgnon and Chamois, one of the largest ski areas in the Italian Alps, explained it to breaking latest news.
With the passage in orange “a quota is imposed on us, a limited maximum number of people – he specifies – who can access the plants”. A number “which is in the process of being defined” will be announced very shortly, “but which, according to the estimates we have made, should be sufficient to guarantee us a good offer of places for customers”. This is because January is a low season month. And therefore “in this period, we will certainly not exceed that number”.
The ski resists, beyond all the new limits: from the obligatory helmet to the insurance on the slopes, to the reinforced Green Pass. The numbers say so, which this season have been decidedly important, in line with the pre-Covid period. During the Christmas and New Year holidays, 15,000 first accesses were recorded every day. “We are certainly far above a season comparable to the pre Covid one which is 2018-19. Compared to then we have recorded over 10% more first entries. We are working very well »confirms the CEO of Tovagliari.
Different situation could occur at the end of February, but it remains to be seen. “We could have some problems in the days of maximum turnout, at carnival”, but no alarm for now. It should be clear that the limitation of the number of people does not concern the percentage of entrances to the ski lifts, whether they are closed or open, but precisely the presence on the slopes: “The number of people who can access the area is the only impacting difference” with color change. For the rest, as early as January 10, it was necessary to have a strengthened Green Pass to climb to the top. Did you encounter any problems this first weekend? “By selling mainly online, we have the possibility to carry out sample checks and, moreover, by choice, we have installed automatic machinery – explains the CEO of Cervino Spa, to the AI - for the control of the green certificate, which are manned by operators of the company. . But we’ve never had any major problems. And it also applies to the weekends in October, when every single skier was checked. Of course there have been some cases, some attempts to pass with the Green Pass that were not regular, but really compared to the numbers we have, they are very few ».
According to the President of the Region Erik Lavevaz, the slide in orange was caused by the high number of unvaccinated people hospitalized, this looking at the hospitalization data. A choice made by a few that can have consequences for everyone: “A passage in the red zone would be tragedy for us – the governor told Sky Tg 24 – It would mean closing the ski lifts at a time when there is a little recovery compared to last year “. We are in the “orange area because we have small numbers, we asked for a timely count for those hospitalized with symptoms” and those for other reasons but tested positive for a swab. For example, “we now have seven people in intensive care, of these the only vaccinated person is hospitalized for polytrauma, it has nothing to do with Covid”.