Coronavirus Pandemic
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Tuesday warned that there would be no skiing holidays over Christmas because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s not possible to allow holidays on the snow because we would have a third wave [of the pandemic],’’ Conte said late Monday in an interview with La7 television.
He said he pushed for “European coordination’’ on the issue, in recent talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and European Council President Charles Michel.
“If pistes have to remain shut, this should apply to all of Europe,” Veneto regional president Luca Zaia told Tuesday’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“You cannot ban skiing in [Italy’s] South Tyrol and allow it in [Austria’s] Carinthia. If would be an unacceptable joke,’’ Zaia protested.
Veneto and other northern regions including Liguria have pleaded for a reopening of Italian skiing facilities, albeit with specific antivirus rules, to save the winter tourist season.
Liguria President Giovanni Toti claimed on Facebook that closing ski resorts “would put 120,000 jobs at risk.’’
He said yet the government is reluctant to relax restrictions after a relatively carefree summer that has been blamed for a devastating resurgence of coronavirus infections in recent weeks.
On Monday, the Italian death toll from the pandemic surpassed 50,000.
Reinhold Messner, an Italian climbing legend from the alpine province of South Tyrol, said in an interview with La Repubblica daily that he backed a prudent approach.
The 76-year-old legend said “waiting until January to reopen pistes and ski-lifts if contagion numbers allow it, is not a choice, is an obligation.’’ (dpa/NAN)
– Nov. 24, 2020 @ 11:45 GMT |
Tags: Italians to give up skiing holidays due to coronavirus pandemic
