The weather gods meant well with the ski season in South Tyrol: He sent a lot of snow for the weekend.

Manfred Gaudenz from the White Cross is satisfied for another reason: The three-day vaccination campaign at the valley station of the Piz La Ila cable car in Alta Badia was a complete success.

More than 700 people had their syringes placed in the vaccination container of the White Cross from Wednesday to Friday.

In a good four fifths of them, it was the booster vaccination, says Gaudenz.

Matthias Rüb

Political correspondent for Italy, the Vatican, Albania and Malta based in Rome.

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The “Landesrettungsverein Weißes Kreuz” is a specialty of the autonomous northern Italian province of South Tyrol.

The emergency and rescue service was founded in 1965 by German-speaking South Tyroleans who did not see themselves adequately cared for by the Italian Red Cross.

Today the “German” White Cross with almost 400 full-time employees and a good 2300 volunteer helpers is a professional rescue and medical service that no longer competes with the “Italian” Red Cross, but cooperates.

You share the emergency number 112 and coordinate emergency and aid operations.

No registration was required for the spades in the vaccination container of the White Cross, set up at the foot of the Gran Risa ski slope in Alta Badia.

Anyone who was “vaccinated” aged 18 and over only had to fill out the anamnesis form, sign the declaration of consent after talking to the vaccinator - and the BioNTech Pfizer vaccine was administered.

At the bottom of the vaccination rate

The vaccination campaign in Alta Badia, in the heart of the Ladin language community in Val Badia, was initiated by the South Tyrolean state medical company in Bolzano. After all, South Tyrol, along with Calabria and Sicily, is at the bottom of the national list when it comes to vaccination rates. Almost 78 percent of the residents over twelve years of age are fully vaccinated in South Tyrol. The national average is a good 84 percent. When it comes to new infections, South Tyrol is one of the frontrunners, even if the situation in the clinics is still under control.

Because several indicator limits have recently been exceeded - a weekly incidence of more than 800 per 100,000 inhabitants and a vaccination rate of less than 70 percent - the government in Bolzano has declared 36 municipalities with around 16,000 inhabitants to be "red zones" and imposed restrictions, including one Nocturnal curfew and mask requirement outdoors, if the distance can not be kept.

The local "emergency brakes", which will initially apply until December 6th, and a new vaccination offensive by the government in Bolzano should help save the winter season.

According to the national warning traffic light system, the province of South Tyrol with its 530,000 inhabitants is still considered a “white zone” with a low risk of infection and minimal restrictions.

The accommodation industry reports a positive booking situation for the winter season - still.

Since March 2020, ski lifts and gondolas have been idle all over Italy, while in Switzerland, for example, people were allowed to waggle and toboggan.

Driving is only possible with a Green Pass

After the total loss of the 2020/21 winter season, Italy does not want to afford another ski lockdown. "The closure of the facilities would be a disaster and destroy the economy of the Alps," warns Andy Varallo, President of Dolomiti Superski. The association operates a dozen ski areas in South Tyrol, Trentino and Veneto. On Saturday, Dolomiti Superski put the first lifts and cable cars into operation as planned, namely in the Kronplatz ski area near Bruneck in the Puster Valley. From the coming weekend, most of the 460 lifts in the network will be running. And it should be humming on the 1,200 kilometers of slopes.

However, only those who have a Green Pass, i.e. who have been vaccinated, recovered or tested, are allowed into the gondola and the lift.

The capacity of the closed gondolas is limited to 80 percent, and a mask is required.

A minimum distance of one meter must be maintained everywhere.

Because vaccinations are “the be-all and end-all” in the fight against the virus, Dolomiti Superski supported the medical services company in offering vaccinations.

In Alta Badia, meanwhile, people are looking forward to a major event in the international ski circuit: on December 19 and 20, two giant slalom races in the men's World Cup will take place.

It will be the 36th edition of the race on the technically difficult Gran Risa.

After the ghost race last year, spectators should be there again this year.

In limited numbers.