Coronavirus strikes at Mount Everest base camp as climbing season starts

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<strong>While the mountaineering season has just begun in Nepal, the deadly coronavirus has already surfaced at the base camp of Mount Everest and could prove to be a spoiler.</strong></p>
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A Norwegian mountaineer who was planning to scale Everest confirmed on Thursday that he has tested positive for Covid-19. “My diagnosis is Covid-19,” Erlend Ness told news agency AFP in a Facebook message. Later, Ness was evacuated from the mountain by helicopter and taken to a hospital in Kathmandu after spending time at Everest base camp.</p>
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A hospital in Kathmandu has confirmed to the media that it had admitted coronavirus patients from Everest but did not divulge a number.</p>
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Nepal’s tourism ministry has also kept mum on the issue.</p>
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A report in the <em>New York Times</em> has revealed that multiple climbers have tested positive after being flown out of base camp. The Washington Post has also reported that coronavirus has reached base camp at Mount Everest and feared that this could become a “super spreader.”</p>
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What is making the situation more confusing is that many common coronavirus symptoms are similar to those of altitude sickness and the “Khumbu cough” that climbers sometimes contract at high altitudes.</p>
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Nepal’s tourism department has issued 377 climbing permits to foreign climbers attempting to scale Everest this year. This is close to the number issued in 2019 for which the tourism department had come in for criticism as 11 people died on the peak and several fell sick as they had got stranded at high altitudes in extreme weather in what was called a “traffic jam” due to too many climbers. There were many inexperienced climbers in expeditions which had delayed the return of others to base camp.</p>
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No permits were issued last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
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