The Vermont Department of Health has detected at least four more active outbreaks of Covid-19 “in the immediate area” of Killington Resort, according to department spokesperson Ben Truman.
Last week, during one of the busiest weeks of the ski season, 86 employees of Killington and neighboring Pico Mountain Ski Resort tested positive for the virus. As of Tuesday, Truman said, no additional employee cases had been confirmed.
Truman did not identify the size or precise location of the four additional outbreaks. The department generally defines an outbreak as three or more cases among those with known connections to a business, school, social gathering or other setting.
Rutland County, where Killington is located, saw a spike in Covid-19 cases late last week when the resort outbreak was detected, according to department data. The county had the third-highest case rate in the state Tuesday, following Bennington and Chittenden counties.
Vermont has reported multiple record-breaking days of Covid-19 cases over the past week, including an all-time high of 1,727 on Tuesday, triggered by the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.
The Killington outbreak has prompted some businesses in the area to revamp their Covid-19 protocols. Liquid Art Coffee House and Eatery owner Beth Sarandrea said she reimposed a mask mandate in her restaurant. She also closed the business Tuesday, in addition to her normal closing day of Wednesday, to keep her staff healthy.
“It’s hard because, obviously, a lot of people are getting sick,” Sarandrea said.
Killington Resort had imposed mask and vaccine mandates for employees and volunteers prior to the ski season, according to President and General Manager Michael Solimano, and reinstated a mask mandate for customers Dec. 27.
But according to one skier who hit the slopes Dec. 28, that mandate was not enforced.
“The patrons were horrible, absolutely horrible,” said Westin Gould, who drove up from Connecticut for the day with his son.
Gould observed that Killington had posted a sign at the bottom of the gondola saying masks were required, but no one was enforcing the policy.
“So you’d get on the gondola, and half the gondola would not have any mask at all,” he recalled.
Gould observed the same disregard for the masking requirement in the resort’s buildings.
“The guests really just did not care about masking,” he said.
On the other hand, Gould said, the entire staff was masked.
It’s not clear how many customers may have been infected at the mountain, nor what steps the resort took to alert them of the outbreak. Neither Solimano, the resort’s president, nor spokesperson Kristel Killary responded to questions about whether and how they informed guests that scores of employees had been infected.
Truman, the health department spokesperson, said the state did not designate the Killington cases an outbreak until Thursday, hours after VTDigger first inquired about it. He said the department quickly set about informing the community through the media, local officials and medical providers, but “timing was a challenge due to the holiday weekend.”
Kathy Iannantuoni, who owns the Greenbrier Inn in Killington, commended the resort for its handling of the outbreak.
“Everyone had to be vaccinated at Killington,” she said.
Iannantuoni added that people in town feel that skiing is as safe an activity as can be found in winter.
“Everybody seems to be having a great time, but cautious, of course,” she said.
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