Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Covid cases reportedly has made mountaineers and authorities worried at Everest base camp in Nepal, where the government has till now denied of such cases. Rising numbers of climbers with Covid-19 symptoms and rising numbers of positive testshas made them worry for an outbreak.
The Nepalese government has so far denied having any knowledge of positive cases at Everest base camp.
Officials at the base camp said they had received reports of 17 confirmed covid cases from hospitals in the capital Kathmandu, where a number of climbers have been sent from the base camp and higher camps for treatment.
Foreign climbers are a major source of revenue for the Nepalese government, which shut Everest last year during the pandemic. Authorities are mandating that visiting climbers quarantine in Nepal before proceeding to base camp, but concerns have been raised within the climbing community that a serious outbreak at the mountain would be devastating.
The number of coronavirus cases has risen sharply in Nepal in recent weeks, and the country has the highest rate of infection among the countries neighbouring India. Prem Subedi, the under-secretary at Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, told the new portal the ministry was not aware of any coronavirus cases at base camp.
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“None of the Covid cases at Everest base camp have been reported so far to the Ministry of Tourism,” he said.
Officials of the Himalayan Rescue Association, which runs a government-authorised medical clinic at the base camp, told they had received confirmation of positive cases in some climbers flown out to Kathmandu by expedition teams.
