COVID outbreak Mount Everest: Guide blows whistle as virus spreads

At least 100 climbers and support staff on Mount Everest are feared to have caught COVID as infections soar across Nepal.

At least 100 climbers and support staff on Mount Everest are feared to have caught COVID as infections soar across Nepal.

A mountaineering guide has blown the whistle on the dire situation while Nepalese officials deny the outbreak has spread to the world’s highest mountain and tourist hotspot.

The tourist destination remains open despite the possibility the virus is spreading on the mountain.

Hundreds of expedition tents at Everest Base Camp on April 30, 2021. Picture: PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP

Austrian man Lukas Furtenbach told The Associated Press, in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, that he cut his expedition short after a fellow foreign guide and six Nepal Sherpa guides tested positive.

“We have at least 100 people minimum positive for COVID in base camp, and then the numbers might be something like 150 or 200,” he said.

Mr Furtenbach said two climbers from his team of 18 tested positive to the virus before they pulled out.

Climbers have to bring their own testing kits, with no other way to test for the virus at the base camp.

In late April, a Norwegian climber who lived in close proximity to others was flown to hospital after testing positive.

Everest reopened this year approving 408 foreign permits after last season shut due to the pandemic.

Hundreds of support staff have been living at base camp since April, the busiest time of the year with the clearest weather conditions.

The season ends at the end of May.

Nepal is reporting 8,277 new infections on average each day, with 6,153 virus deaths tallied in the country since the pandemic began.