Nepal’s healthcare system is on the bring of collapse as the country has logged over 8,000 new coronavirus cases every day according to Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 data. As hospitals deal with an influx in cases, oxygen supply is drastically reduced forcing the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) to urge climbers of Mount Everest to return used oxygen canisters so that they me be used to treat patients.
Kul Bahadur Gurung, a senior official with the NMA, said climbers and their Sherpa guides were estimated to have carried at least 3,500 oxygen bottles this season. These bottles often get buried in avalanches or are abandoned on the mountain slopes at the end of the expedition.
“We appeal to climbers and sherpas to bring back their empty bottles wherever possible as they can be refilled and used for the treatment of the coronavirus patients who are in dire needs,” Gurung said.
On Sunday, Nepal reported a daily increase of 8,777 infections, 30 times the number recorded on 9 April. The total caseload stands at 394,667 and 3,720 deaths, according to government data.
Bring back your empty oxygen tanks, Nepal urges Everest climbers 10 May 2021 / 16:20 H. Pix for illustration purposes.
KATHMANDU: Nepal is so short of oxygen canisters that it has asked climbers on Mount Everest to bring back their empties instead of abandoning them on mountain slopes, an official said on Monday, as it struggles with a second wave of the coronavirus.
The country issued climbing permits to more than 700 climbers for 16 Himalayan peaks - 408 to Mount Everest - for the April-May climbing season in a bid to get the mountaineering industry and tourism back up and running.
The Nepal Mountaineering Association has asked the climbers to help Nepal deal with a surge in Covid-19 cases that has brought the country’s fragile healthcare system to breaking point, as it has in neighbouring India where deaths held close to record highs on Monday.
Thailand 11 May 2021
KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal is so short of oxygen canisters that it has asked climbers on Mount Everest to bring back their empties instead of abandoning them on mountain slopes, an official said on Monday, as it struggles with a second wave of the coronavirus.
The country issued climbing permits to more than 700 climbers for 16 Himalayan peaks - 408 to Mount Everest - for the April-May climbing season in a bid to get the mountaineering industry and tourism back up and running.
The Nepal Mountaineering Association has asked the climbers to help Nepal deal with a surge in COVID-19 cases that has brought the country s fragile healthcare system to breaking point, as it has in neighbouring India where deaths held close to record highs on Monday.
By GOPAL SHARMA, Reuters
Published May 10, 2021 5:38pm
This photograph taken on May 4, 2017 shows a general view of the Mount Everest range from Tengboche, some 300 kms north-east of Kathmandu. Prakash Mathema/AFP KATHMANDU Nepal is so short of oxygen canisters that it has asked climbers on Mount Everest to bring back their empties instead of abandoning them on mountain slopes, an official said on Monday, as it struggles with a second wave of the coronavirus. The country issued climbing permits to more than 700 climbers for 16 Himalayan peaks 408 to Mount Everest for the April-May climbing season in a bid to get the mountaineering industry and tourism back up and running.