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Apr 22, 2021 - Health

COVID-19 reaches Mount Everest and experts warn of possible "superspreader" event

Tina Reed
Yellow and greens tents are set up in Mount Everest's base camp.
In this photograph taken on April 25, 2018, trekkers and porters gather at Everest Base Camp, some 140 km northeast of the Nepali capital Kathmandu. As the spring climbing season kicks off, officials warn the world's highest peak could become a "superspreader event" for COVID-19. Photo: by PRAKASH MATHEMA-AFP/Getty Images

COVID-19 knows no bounds, reaching the farthest ends of the Earth including Mount Everest.

Details: As the spring climbing season kicks off, officials warn the world's highest peak could serve as a setting for a "superspreader event" due to crowded camps filled with travelers and a steady rotation of locals assisting the climbing teams.

Catch up quick: The warnings, first reported by Outside Magazine, come as Nepal's neighbor, India, battles record daily surges of the novel coronavirus. India's health ministry confirmed 314,835 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the country's tally to nearly 16 million infections since the start of the pandemic.

Be smart: A COVID outbreak in the punishing environment could be particularly dangerous, as Outside reported.

  • “Even a small cut on your finger doesn’t heal until you get back down to an oxygen-rich environment," Outside's Everest correspondent Alan Arnette told the publication in 2020.
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