At least 100 Covid positive cases on Everest

Kathmandu: An expert climbing guide on Saturday said that a coronavirus outbreak on Mount Everest has infected at least 100 climbers and support staff, giving the first comprehensive estimate amid official Nepalese denials of a Covid-19 cluster on the world's highest peak.

Lukas Furtenbach of Austria, who last week became the only prominent outfitter to halt his Everest expedition due to virus fears, said one of his foreign guides and six Nepali Sherpa guides have tested positive. "I think with all the confirmed cases we know now — confirmed from (rescue) pilots, from insurance, from doctors, from expedition leaders — I have the positive tests so we can prove this," Furtenbach told The Associated Press in Nepal's capital, Kathmandu.

"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. He said it was obvious there were many cases at the Everest base camp because he could visibly see people were sick, and could hear people coughing in their tents.

A total of 408 foreign climbers were issued permits to climb Everest this season, aided by several hundred Sherpa guides and support staff who've been stationed at base camp since April. Nepalese mountaineering officials have denied there are any active cases this season among climbers and support staff at all base camps for the country's Himalayan mountains.

Mountaineering was closed last year due to the pandemic. Nepalese officials could not immediately be reached for comment on Saturday. Other climbing teams have not announced any Covid-19 infections among their members or staff. Several climbers have reported testing positive after they were brought down from the Everest base camp.