COVID-19 reaches Mount Everest as climber tests positive

Kathmandu, Nepal — A Norwegian climber hoping to summit Mount Everest confirmed on Thursday that he had tested positive for COVID-19, in a blow to Nepal's hopes for a bumper mountaineering season on the world's highest peak. The pandemic wiped out last year's season but Nepal has eased quarantine rules in an effort to attract more climbers despite the difficulties of treating them if they contract the virus.

"My diagnosis is COVID-19," Erlend Ness told AFP in a Facebook message. "I'm doing ok now... The hospital is taking care [of me]." Ness was evacuated from the slopes by helicopter and taken to a hospital in the Nepali capital Kathmandu after spending time at Everest base camp.