New Zealand not giving up on 2020 season, Bridget Legnavsky GM of Cardrona & Treble Cone

[marzNC]

Given that COVID-19 has been well controlled in New Zealand, there is still hope for some sort of ski season at least for locals. The GM for Cardrona and Treble Cone has been Bridget Legnavsky for the past six years. This season she's at home with two tween/teen children while working out the details for a possible opening in late June. She was an instructor at Breck and Aspen in past.

April 22, Powder
Skiing and the Pandemic: Will New Zealand Have a Ski Season?
If possible, Cardrona and Treble Cone are scheduled to open June 26
https://www.powder.com/interview/skiing-and-the-pandemic-will-new-zealand-have-a-ski-season/

NZ has four clear levels of restrictions related to COVID-19. Has to get to Level 2 before any ski resort will be allowed to open. As of last week, NZ had only 13 deaths due to COVID-19.

Sport and recreation activities at Alert Levels 1 – 4
https://sportnz.org.nz/assets/Uploads/Play-Recreation-and-Sport-Detailed-Level-1-4-Table.pdf

 

[Tvan]

NZ has done a superior job of containment through some exceptional leadership and rational decision-making.

 

[marzNC]

NZ has done a superior job of containment through some exceptional leadership and rational decision-making.

It's certainly an advantage to have a person in charge of a country's public health department who has not only professional medical experience, but also experience working at a local public health office. Dr. Ashley Bloomfield also sounds like a genuinely nice guy. He also worked at WHO for a year along the way.

April 11, New Zealand Herald
Covid-19: Ashley Bloomfield’s rise to the top - the inside story
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12324032
". . .
It's been years since the Ministry of Health was led by a medical doctor. Years, too, since that doctor was someone who had trained and worked in the specialist discipline of public health.
. . .
By the time the 2019 measles epidemic was under way, Bloomfield had been in the job for a year. In press conferences on the outbreak, he was able to lean on his public health background with authority and talk with personal experience of the benefits of targeting those hesitant about vaccination.

Bloomfield came to the Covid-19 crisis with the knowledge and time to prepare. He had the management team he wanted, organised how he wanted. He had a practice run. Through a lifetime of work, he had developed the skills needed.
. . .
There were periods after working in hospitals here and in the United Kingdom but - with being made a Master in Public Health in 1996 - his future medical path was set.

Public health is a discipline that aims to improve health outcomes as broadly as possible across a population. Where a GP will focus on one patient at a time, a public health specialist will have a wider view, taking in communities and even entire societies and working to find ways of improving the health of as many as possible.

Where a GP or clinical doctor might be focused entirely on medical solutions, a public health specialist will look more laterally to study the impact of factors such as poverty and housing.
. . ."

 

[heather matthews]

As a New Zealander I've been so proud of what we have achieved so far but it's only just the beginning.Of course I hope to be able to ski but if it doesn't happen then that's ok. Currently we don't have community transmission(we think) and that's a great place to be but everyone knows it can all change very quickly.I'm glad and feel lucky that we've had the right people in charge making hard and difficult decisions driven by public health and not economics.I feel for all you ladies in the States with so many different approaches and the terrible loss of life there has been.

 

[Jenny]

Your country has done an amazing job! And, we are going to need many trip reports and pictures.