BRITISH SKIERS WITH CORONAVIRUS MOVED FROM SAALBACH
10th March 2020
Last modified on May 15th, 2021
A group of 10 skiers has left the Austrian resort of Saalbach after being forced into isolation in a hotel there.
According the ski resort, the British travel group was quarantined by order of the authorities last week after one of the holidaymakers – a 61-year-old man – was found to be infected.
Four of the party were later found to have contracted the illness.
The resort did not give any further details others than to say that the group had ‘meanwhile left Saalbach Hinterglemm’.
A UK newspaper says the group was taken by ambulance to Piesendorf, 30 minutes away.
The Daily Mail reports that the 10 were told they would share rooms but those who had tested positive would be separated from the others.
One of the group, 51-year-old John Groake from Leeds, who tested negative for the virus is quoted by the newspaper.
“We are moving to a house with double rooms. The positive and negative people will be split into different bedrooms but we don’t know who’s got it or not,” he said.
A doctor at the Salzburg Landeskliniken hospital said the 61-year-old British man was the more seriously affected of the group but was not acutely ill.
Three other men, two aged 49 and one aged 44, are to said to have very mild symptoms.
A statement from the Salzburg Region says the other 35 guests in the Saalbach hotel where the Britons were initially isolated, did not need to be quarantined.
“We checked intensively and understood exactly who the patient and the other British holidaymakers had contact with,” district captain Bernhard Gratz said.
“The members of the British travel group mostly stayed together in the hotel and ate their meals in a separate room, they have never been in direct contact with other people for more than a few minutes.”
Saalbach, Austria, March 2019. Image © PlanetSKI.
The statement said neither the other hotel guests, nor the staff or the owner showed symptoms of a disease and, due to the fact that they had not met the patient at all or never for more than a few minutes, they were not considered to be Category 1 contact persons for whom a quarantine arrangement was required.
The Mayor, Alois Hasenauer, emphasised that the Briton who first tested positive for Covid-19 in Saalbach had hardly been out in public before he was quarantined in his hotel room.
Two Norwegians, who arrived in Saalbach with acute symptoms and subsequently tested positive on site, remain in quarantine.
The resort says there are no further suspected cases and no restrictions on its ski and lift operations.
“Should you already feel unwell or experience any symptoms before the start of your trip, we recommend in the public interest that you postpone your holiday in consultation with your host,” the resort says on its website.
Austria has now banned indoor events of more than 100 people and outdoor events of more than 500 people.
It led to the announcement late on Tuesday that the FIS Alpine Europa Cup Finals, due to take place in Saalbach and Reiteralm from 16th to 22nd March, would not go ahead.
The Austrian government has also announced a ban on Italians entering the country unless they carry a medical certificate.
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