COVID-19 appears at Mount Everest

Climbers are delighted when Nepal decided to reopen Mount Everest this year but the ‘rooftop of the world’ is also not safe from COVID-19.
Erland Ness, a Norwegian climber, was evacuated from the Everest campsite in late April and got a positive result after testing at a hospital in the Nepali capital Kathmandu, according to CNN.

“ When I got a positive result, I was shocked. And then I realized that my adventure was over “Ness said.” My dream is to go to the top of the mountain and enjoy the scenery there “. Some climbers have tested positive for COVID-19, but the Nepalese government says no infections have been reported on Everest. (Photo: CNN) Polish climber Pawel Michalski then posted on Facebook an article “30 people have been evacuated” from the campsite and found positive for COVID-19. Some climbers are quarantined in their tents, as there have been a few confirmed cases of COVID-19 in early childhood, Everest ER, a volunteer organization that provides aid to climbers. canopy off the campsite. Nepalese government regulations prohibiting climbers from sharing photos of others without consent restricted information coming from the mountain, but rumors are spreading as more cases are reported. infected, and not just at Everest. At least 19 people have been evacuated from the climbing camps in Dhaulagiri – the world’s seventh highest peak – 345 kilometers west of Everest, according to Mingma Sherpa, president of the Seven Summits Trek Company. Seven people had a positive result and another 12 had to be tested after symptoms appeared, he added. Nepalese Army spokesman Major General Santosh Ballave Paudel said three cleaners at the Dhaulagiri campsite had COVID-19. One person was evacuated on Wednesday and the other two will be evacuated during clear weather. Climbers are worried that Nepal will close Everest again, said Lukas Furtenbach, an expedition chief. “ I guess there will be more infections ”Furtenbach told CNN from his campsite at Mera Peak, south of Everest. “ Everyone is worried about a message from the Department of Tourism that says: ‘You all have to go home’ “. Patient number 0 on Mount Everest According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, Nepal’s economy is mainly based on tourism revenue, generating 240.7 billion rupees ($ 2 billion) in 2018. Those who want to climb mountains must have a license. from the Nepal Tourism Board in Kathmandu and the cost falls to around 11,000 USD. Many Nepalese people depend on tourism and climbing services for a living. In 2018, Nepal’s tourism industry supported more than 1 million direct and indirect jobs. After canceling last year’s mountaineering tours due to the pandemic, Nepal’s Tourism Ministry granted 408 permits to Everest climbers this year. But there will be more than 408 people making their journey of exploration stopping at the campsite and along the mountainside, followed by a climbing support team consisting of chefs, guides and geographic assistants. Phuong. This will complicate the efforts to create “bubbles” and social distance. “ The campsite is a miniature city ”, Said Alan Arnette, veteran observer, who reached Mount Everest in 2011 and now runs a climbing website. Furtenbach estimated there were about 1,200 people staying at the campsite this year. These conditions make the stretching more difficult. “ Usually there will be lots of social activities, events, campsites, groups visiting and making new friends. ”, Said Furtenbach. Now, most travel agencies are trying to maintain the “bubble” of isolation. Some Sherpas and local staff have to give up their usual habit of going home on holidays. Many expedition teams have had to travel longer distances without a break to spend as little time as possible at Everest. Some climbers have tested positive for COVID-19, but the Nepalese government says no infections have been reported on Everest. (Photo: CNN) Viruses can attack quickly Ness – the first case of COVID-19 infection on a publicly identifiable Everest – said he began to feel sick five days after the group’s trip to the campsite. “ I feel sick … I have a headache in the mountains, maybe a little fever, I don’t know, but the oxygen in my blood is very low “. “ At the campsite, my health got worse every day “, Ness said, adding that doctors finally asked to take him to the hospital and there he knew he had COVID-19. The positive results beat Ness’s three years of training for the journey, but he considers himself lucky for making a quick recovery. “ I thought if I got COVID-19 in Kathmandu, I wouldn’t get seriously ill – because I recovered very quickly after leaving the mountain. “, I said. “ But it’s terrible to be infected at 5,500 meters above sea level “. Confronted with confusion Reports of COVID-19 infections have resulted in a tense atmosphere at the Everest campsite. “ We get emails from other teams, trying to decide whether to go home or not, because it’s clear things are getting serious. “, Said Adrian Ballinger, an expedition leader who withdrew from the Everest expedition because of concerns about COVID-19. “ I heard the guide, the Sherpas and one of the helicopter companies talk about how many COVID-19 rescues they were doing. “, I said. As the rumors swirled, concerns also increased due to the lack of in-site test kits. “ We hope the government will confirm cases, keep things transparent, maybe even send a support team to the campsite to do mass testing to find the super people. infection “, Said Furtenbach, head of the expedition. “ I think every travel agency will be happy to pay for this. It will probably save the climbing season, because it would be risky to have more and more infections causing this season to end sooner. “. A sign encourages those outside to stay away from the camp. (Photo: The Washington Post) Everest ER, an aid service run by the Himalayan Rescue Nonprofit, wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday that there have been reports of nagging coughs during this climbing season. . “ This year has been a difficult year due to the COVID-19 pandemic “, Said Everest ER. “ We cannot afford rapid on-site tests at this time “. Talking about the Seven Summit Treks expedition at Everest, Mingma Sherpa said his group has departed from Camp 2 and is expected to arrive at Camp 4 on Thursday. “ If we run the Covid-19 test among climbers, some of them will probably be positive for the virus. But until now no one has any serious health complications except the common cold and cough “Mingma said. Lukas Furtenbach at the beginning of the journey to conquer Mount Everest. (Photo: CNN) Seven Summit Treks Company has 130 customers registered to climb Mount Everest this spring. According to CNN, many Everest climbers do not want to talk to journalists about the COVID-19 situation because they fear they will be denied a climbing license in the future. This has made it more difficult to estimate the number of people infected, and rumors continue to circulate, even among mountain climbing groups. “ I know people who used to have COVID-19, those infected have come to Kathmandu and now they are recovering, and I know there are people who have not had any cases in their camps. “, Says Arnette, describing his conversations with climbers in recent weeks. “ We were all trying to figure out what was going on and we were all confused “, He added. Ethical issue Of all the parts of the world that are facing COVID-19, Mount Everest is probably the worst. “ Everyone’s respiratory system is having difficulty and overactive, so it is much more susceptible to upper respiratory tract disease. ”Said Ballinger, the head of the expedition. Climbers face an intense physical warfare with every step of the mountain, he said. “ You cannot sleep in the highlands, so you will feel tired for many days without sleep. You cannot eat, because the digestive system is considered unnecessary because anything you put in your stomach makes you feel nauseous. “, I said. Persistent coughing spells that are so common during journeys at Everest – known as the Khumbu cough, named after the valley leading to Everest – make detecting COVID-19 especially difficult. “ Your entire body is working to the limit, so the virus will be a real threat to your health and even life. “, expedition chief Furtenbach said. And evacuation can become more dangerous once the teams have left the campsite and continue on up. “ If the weather worsens and someone begins to have complications, evacuating without a helicopter would take days and be very dangerous. ”, Said Furtenbach. For now, however, the spirit for the journey is still intact. “ Everyone was delighted “, Furtenbach said.” We had customers who waited for two years and it was their life’s dream “. Furtenbach’s team brought their own COVID-19 test kit to Everest and regularly checked team members. (Photo: CNN) But Nepal and its neighbor India are being engulfed in a dire second wave of COVID-19. Nepal recorded the highest number of cases per day on Wednesday. So some climbers are also considering whether or not to continue. “ I think we’ll start to see some climbers leave because they only feel they are doing it morally wrong, when the Kathmandu outbreak was too strong. ”Ballinger predicted. “ The villagers are sitting there with thousands of oxygen tanks “. “ If more and more cases come to a campsite, the authorities in Nepal will have to do something about it “, Added Furtenbach, again proposing an early end of the climbing season. “ I think they tried to do the right thing, they tried to save the climbing season. But maybe that’s not the right thing to do “.