What is happening in the Southern Hemisphere, which is currently in the middle of the snow season , regarding the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19)
current situation in australia
As of August 25th, Australia and New Zealand in the southern hemisphere are in the middle of winter, which is the peak season for the snow business.
In an average year, many tourists from the northern hemisphere visit, and the ski resorts are very busy. However, due to the new coronavirus, all foreigners are currently restricted from entering the country.
In the state of Victoria, where Australia's second city, Melbourne, is located, the infection is spreading rapidly, and Stage 4, which imposes the largest restrictions on movement, including urban lockdowns, has finally been announced.
Outside of work, people are allowed to go out within a radius of 5km from their homes, go out for no more than one hour a day, and have a curfew until 8:00 p.m.
This will continue for at least six weeks, until September 13th, and if things continue as they are, it will continue for up to six months. The restrictions apply to urban areas, and suburban areas with ski resorts have moved from Stage 2 to Stage 3 restrictions on August 6. There are about 10 ski resorts in Australia, but the most famous and popular among them is Mt.Buller (Mount Buller), which is just three hours from Melbourne, Victoria, where the epidemic is rapidly spreading.
2020 season・The first day of opening on June 24
The resort was able to open on June 24th without incident, even in the midst of the coronavirus crisis in the southern hemisphere, where the world is paying attention to what kind of infection situation the new coronavirus will be in winter. Here is the video from that day.
The sight of people having fun while following infection prevention measures and rules, such as the acrylic board at the ticket counter and social distancing on the lift, was overflowing with joy, saying, "I'm glad the mountains are open!"
August 6, 2020
Finally closed at Alert Level Stage 3
But...
things have changed.
Mt.Buller has been closed since August 6th due to the alert level being raised to Stage 3. We asked Tony Harrigton, a photographer who lives in Mt.Buller, about the actual mountain conditions. Tony is also the official photographer of Mt.Buller, so he knows a lot about the inside of the resort.
Tony was forced to stay in a hotel for two weeks while traveling to Queensland, where the Gold Coast is located, for surf business due to the closure of Mt.
This is where the difficulty lies
“The government was so full of other things to do that they couldn’t even get around to ski resorts.In that situation, representatives from all the ski resorts in Australia got together and managed to have a lot of discussions with the government. During that time, we discussed social distancing regulations, discussed how
this would affect the operation of the ski resorts, and then representatives from the field at each ski resort met with management. The problem was accommodation.The employees living and working on top of the mountain used to share a room with multiple people, but now only one room can be used by one person. .
As a result, we had no choice but to run the ski resorts with only staff who were stationed all year round. Due to the extreme shortage of personnel, the resident staff had to do work other than their original work, and the work was swelling, including disinfecting the facility and various infection prevention measures. The damage caused by Corona became a major personnel problem.
big lift problem
and lift issues.
A 4-person lift can only accommodate 2 people, and a 6-person lift can only accommodate up to 3 people, as it is necessary to maintain a social distance of 1.5 meters from each other. The operating rate of the lift is halved. Of course, profits have plummeted. However, it was not necessary for people living in the same roof (share house residents and family members).
Because if we lived together, we should have been infected long ago. “The number of people who can enter the mountain was also severely limited. Another famous resort in Australia, Sretobo in New South Wales, was the first to stop the season pass and refund the money
. , If the season pass can no longer be used, it is securing staff to work in the mountains.Many people who live and work in the mountains are working because they can use the season pass, so if the season pass can no longer be used , I no longer feel like coming to work.
The one-day pass is 140 AU$, so it's impossible to pay 140 dollars every day. In other words, they lost their motivation to work at the ski resort. It's not just that I don't have a dormitory, I've lost my motivation to work, so I'm ready to give up. It would be a problem if the ski resort was open and there were no staff.”
HP crashes due to a flood of advance tickets
Another big problem was advance tickets.
A limited number of lift tickets were pre-sold one or two weeks before the start of the season, and were not sold for the next six to eight weeks. Because everyone tried to purchase a one-day ticket on the resort's website, access was concentrated, and all the resort's websites crashed. “I was very dissatisfied because I couldn’t buy the tickets. The operation side is said to have suffered greatly.”
Up to 20 people in a restaurant with a capacity of 100 people
“In Australia, there was a rule that restaurants would be closed at the beginning of the season. Originally, it was operated with a capacity of 100 people and made a profit, so there was a fundamental difficulty of how to make a profit at the level of 20.
And it was cold with rain and snow
When you're desperate and want to evacuate to a covered place, the restaurant can't let you in because of the limit on the number of people, so the resort closed some of the resort's own shops and created a warming room that can accommodate up to 20 people. was originally making thousands of dollars a day in profit, turned into just a room to warm up, with boots and clothes just for 20 people due to inclement weather. I had to take the whole thing off the shelf. What a waste and crazy thing!”
Tony's gallery "HARROW ART" in the Village squar at the foot of Mt.Buller was also restricted to a maximum of 6 people.
"A lot of people wanted to come in to see my photos, but I had to ask them to wait outside in the cold saying, 'I'm sorry, I can't let you in, I'm begging you.' Is that There's nothing more contradictory and painful than saying "Don't come" in a place where "Please come"
Measures to prevent the spread of infection...
Ski patrols work in small teams, but clusters tend to occur within teams, so the teams never meet. Moreover, in the unlikely event that someone was injured, there was a possibility that the injured customer was infected, so the whole body was wrapped in protective clothing and taken care of.
In order to prevent the occurrence of clusters at the resort, we will make sure that all visitors download the app to their smartphones, and by having them read the QR code on their smartphones when entering the resort, a system that keeps a record of their actions. introduced.
Names and contact information are registered in the app, so if an infected person appears in the mountains, it is possible to contact the person at risk as a close contact from the action history. However, despite the measures taken so far, the spread of infection raged on Mt.Buller and finally closed.
The next reopening is scheduled for September 13 at the earliest. What will happen?
Text・Edit/STEEP Editorial Department Photos/Tony Harrington