KATHMANDU: A team of climbers including a Bahrain prince has completed the first summit of a Nepal Himalayan peak this season after being given permission despite a coronavirus ban on tourist arrivals.
The group, which includes members of the Bahrain Royal Guard and three Britons, climbed the 6,119-metre Lobuche, expedition organiser Seven Summits Treks said.
It was not revealed if all 18 members of the team reached the summit, a precursor to them next tackling the 8,163-metre Manaslu, the world’s eighth-highest mountain.
Tourists and climbers are officially barred from the country until mid-October.
The team arrived in Nepal in mid-September and quarantined in the capital Kathmandu for a week before heading to Everest base camp and on to Lobuche.
More than 50 Sherpas are part of the expedition.
The group plans to climb Everest next year.
Nepal closed its borders in March and grounded international flights just ahead of the busy spring climbing season, devastating the local tourism sector. Limited international flights resumed last month, but only for citizens and foreign diplomats.
PM’S ADVISERS TEST POSITIVE
On Sunday, three advisers to Nepal’s Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli said had tested positive for COVID-19, which has claimed the lives of 528 people in the country.
Oli’s press, political and foreign affairs advisers told Reuters they had been infected and were isolating themselves. An assistant working for Oli also tested positive, they added. Oli has previously tested negative, but had yet to take a test after his associates tested positive, press adviser Surya Thapa said.
“The prime minister has been exercising extreme caution while meeting with people,” Thapa said. Oli’s personal physician had earlier tested positive and is isolating herself, Thapa said, adding that more than two dozen security personnel at Oli’s official residence have also tested positive.
Nepal’s COVID-19 cases rose by 2,120 to 84,570 on Saturday, the country’s health ministry said. Neighbouring India’s coronavirus death toll passed 100,000 on Saturday, making it the third country to reach that milestone, after the United States and Brazil, and its epidemic shows no sign of abating. — dpa/Reuters
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