Nepal seeks oxygen cylinders from mountaineers for COVID-19 patients Xinhua | Updated: 2021-05-11 10:28
Patients receive oxygen as they sit on chairs outside the passage of a hospital due to a lack of free beds at the hospital for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patients, as the second major coronavirus wave surges in Kathmandu, Nepal, May 10, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]
KATHMANDU - As Nepal is scrambling to find enough oxygen for a swelling number of COVID-19 patients, the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) has also taken the initiative to collect oxygen cylinders from mountaineers.
According to the association, around 5,000 oxygen cylinders are being used by mountaineers for climbing the world s tallest Mt Qomolangma and other Himalayan peaks at the moment.
There is only one summit and it would be practically impossible to create a separation between climbers on both sides, Santa Bir Lama said.
The government of China Monday announced it will be reinforcing its patrolling of the Himalayan Nepalese border, particularly near or around Mount Everest to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country through climbers.
To achieve that goal and although the borders have been practically closed since March 2020, China will install a border demarcation line on top of Mt Everest, the Chinese press reported.
China, the first country to hit the pandemic in December 2019, largely contained the disease since spring 2020 and now fears a return of infections from abroad.
COVID-19: Nepalese PM loses vote of confidence as cases surge
Reuters, KATHMANDU
Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli on Monday lost a confidence vote in parliament, the speaker said, pitching the nation into political turmoil at a time when it is battling a major second wave of COVID-19 infections.
Oli’s moderate communist party split from former Maoist rebels in March after differences over its power-sharing deal, wiping out the governing majority. Political parties will now try to cobble together a new ruling coalition.
Nepalese Parliament Speaker Agni Sapkota said that of 232 lawmakers present, 93 voted in favor of Oli, while 124 were against and 15 abstained.
Covid-19 news: Concern over black fungus in covid-19 patients in India newscientist.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newscientist.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The World Health Organization said Monday that a variant of the coronavirus circulating in India is of global concern.
“We classify it as a variant of concern at a global level,” Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO technical lead on COVID-19, told a briefing. “There is some available information to suggest increased transmissibility.”
India’s daily COVID statistics are down slightly but remain high. The health ministry said Monday there were 366,161 new infections and 3,754 deaths caused by the coronavirus in the previous 24-hour period. Public health experts say they believe the new cases and deaths are undercounted.
India has 22.6 million COVID cases so far, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Only the U.S. has more infections, accounting for 32.7 million of the world’s 158.3 million COVID cases, the center reported.