Ski resorts: wearing a mask compulsory and health pass activated if the incidence rate is too high

If you were going to relax on skiing this winter, forgetting the barrier gestures and the coronavirus pandemic, you have to forget! Jean Castex announced a new health protocol that will be implemented in ski resorts, in ski lift queues in particular, during a trip to Haute-Savoie on Saturday, November 6. Thus, the wearing of the mask will be compulsory in these queues. And above all, the health pass could also become so if the national incidence rate is too high, namely that it exceeds 200 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants.

This health protocol is intended according to the Prime Minister to “guarantee” the holding of a “dignified season”, after a last very difficult winter for the mountain sector with the closure of ski lifts because of the Covid epidemic. 19. While the new ski season is gradually starting, the government has therefore chosen the option of a reinforced protocol for wearing the mask in the cable cars and outdoors in the queues and mixing places.

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Distancing will also be imposed in the queues of the lifts, “with random checks”. Once installed on the chairlift, the mask can be removed in the open air. This protocol should come into force early next week, said Secretary of State for Tourism Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne. The sanitary pass is not required at this stage to climb to the top of the slopes. But it could become so if the health situation continues to deteriorate, while the epidemic has experienced a definite resurgence in recent weeks.

An incidence rate that has returned to above 60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants

The executive decided to set the trigger threshold where the pass will become mandatory, at an incidence rate of 200 cases per 100,000 inhabitants at the national level. Because “you welcome a public come from everywhere”, indicated Jean Castex to elected officials and local actors during a meeting in Grand-Bornand. “It’s a good balance, given what the vaccination rates are otherwise,” the prime minister said. “It guarantees the health safety of skiers and the accomplishment of the activity” of the stations, he added, before a speech at the 88th congress of mayors of Haute-Savoie in La Roche-sur-Foron.

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In recent days, the incidence rate has risen above the bar of 60 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in France. In addition, 76.1% of the population received at least one dose of vaccine. “Security and attractiveness can only go hand in hand. Even Switzerland has put the pass. The epidemic is not over, we must make this conciliation”, insisted Romain Castex to local elected officials. Among the elected, Éric Fournier, mayor of Chamonix and regional councilor close to Laurent Wauquiez (LR), welcomed a “strong, clear and clear signal”. “That’s the right answer. Thank you,” he added.