Updated 9th March.

The FCO now advises against all but essential travel to Italy, due to an ongoing outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) and in line with various controls and restrictions imposed by the Italian authorities on 9 March.

All Italian ski resorts were ordered to close as of midnight.

Updated 19:00hrs 7th March.

The latest advice from the UK Department of Health and Social Care:

Stay indoors and avoid contact with other people if you’ve travelled to the UK from the following places in the last 14 days, even if you do not have symptoms:

 
Stay indoors and avoid contact with other people if you’ve travelled to the UK from Italy outside of the lockdown areas in the last 14 days and have a cough, high temperature or shortness of breath, even if your symptoms are mild.
 
Essentially this remains the same as previous advice. (source)

Updated 19:00hrs 28th February.

The travel advice from the UK Government has not changed in the last few days. They are advising only those people returning from the 11 quarantined towns (see the map below) to isolate themselves and to call the NHS.

People returning from other areas of north Italy should only contact the NHS if they have flu like symptoms. Everyone else should carry on normally.

According to the World Health Authority, more than 80% of patients infected with the virus have mild symptoms and recover fully.

The WHO also claim that 650,000 people each year die of respiratory diseases linked to seasonal flu (source). Currently the number of people who have died with the Coronavirus is less than 3,000.

Sauze d’Oulx remains open and is welcoming visitors.

Updated 22:00hrs 26th February.

The UK Government today reiterated that they do not intend to impose any measures to stop flights to and from Italy.

The focus of concern remains the 11 towns that have been quarantined with the Foreign Office warning against all but essential travel to those areas. Those areas remain the ones indicated on the map below.

Three cases were reported yesterday in Piedmont, two of these cases have now been cleared of the virus following second level checks carried out by the higher institute of health.

Only those people that are returning from the north of Italy who have flu like symptoms need to self isolate. They should also call the NHS on 111. Everyone else should carry on normally.

Sauze remains open and is welcoming visitors. All bars and restaurants are open and activities on the mountain remain unchanged.

Updated 23:00hrs 25th February.

Due to the amount of emails that we are receiving from concerned customers over the Coronavirus outbreak in Italy, I thought it would be best to write a post in attempt to relay as much information as I can. As this is a fluid situation, this post will be updated with any new information as and when we receive it. Our sources of information are the various news channels, we have no direct link to any official sources.

As of Tuesday evening, the confirmed number of deaths in northern Italy is 11. These fatalities are in the Lombardy (9) and Veneto (2) regions of the country. To date, deaths in Italy concern people that have died with the virus and not because of the virus. Coronavirus has aggravated pre existing medical conditions, according to La Republica (Italian newspaper).

The government of Italy has introduced extraordinary measures that allow regions to implement civil protection measures in response to Coronavirus. This includes the isolation of 10 small towns in Lombardy and one in Veneto, shown as red dots on the map. Sauze d’Oulx is the blue dot.

The regions of Lombardy, Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Piemonte and Emilia Romagna have implemented measures including the suspension of public or private events, the suspension of schools and higher education and the suspension on the opening of museums and cultural institutions for seven days, this will end Friday 28th February.

The Italian Prime Minister has said that he currently sees no reason to restrict travel. He goes onto to say that any suspension of the Schengen agreement would be totally disproportionate to the current situation.

The UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, said the travel advice to Italy has not changed and there are currently no plans to stop flights from the country.

People that are returning from the north of Italy, currently being classed as anywhere north of Pisa, with flu like conditions are being asked to self isolate and to call their GP.

Sauze d’Oulx continues to remain open as a ski resort and there are no travel restrictions in place in the region. For those arriving into Turin airport expect screening measures to be in place.

Further advice for travellers can be found on the Travel HealthPro website

Keep up to date with the UK’s Foreign and Commenwealth Office travel advice for Italy by clicking this link.