KATHMANDU: The government has said that there is no health risk in Mt Everest as published in different international media.
International media, including the BBC, reported that coronavirus had spread to the Mt Everest base camp.
The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation has denied the allegations and said that it has drawn attention to the news that the infection of COVID-19 has spread among the mountaineers.
The ministry said, “The liaison officer will confirm the health status of the climbers based on the information received from the contact of the expedition team leader and on-site monitoring.”
So far, the government has not received any report from any of the 745 licensed climbers that any member of the team has been infected with coronavirus and had to withdraw from the expedition.
The ministry described the news as “misleading and scary”. According to the ministry, a liaison officer has been deployed by the tourism department with each team to regularly cover the climbing activities and important news of the team. According to the liaison officer, there is no health risk in the mountains.
According to Mira Acharya, director of the tourism department based at the Everest base camp, a team has left for the final summit from Camp 2 of Mt Everest. All the climbers have taken RT-PCR negative report.
