Beijing (AFP)
China will install a "line of demarcation" at the top of Everest to avoid any risk of contamination with Covid-19 by mountaineers from Nepal.
China, the first country struck by the pandemic from the end of 2019, largely contained the disease from the spring of 2020 and now fears a return of infections from abroad.
While the borders have been practically closed since March 2020, the country now intends to extend its surveillance to the snow-capped Top of the World, which it shares with Nepal at 8,848 meters above sea level.
High mountain guides will set up a demarcation line at the top before allowing mountaineers to attack the climb on the Chinese side (north), the China news agency reported on Sunday.
According to the official news agency, the announcement was made at a press conference by the head of the Tibetan Mountaineering Association.
New China did not specify how Beijing concretely intended to mark its territory on the narrow summit of the highest mountain in the world, where only a few climbers can stand at the same time.
Tibetan officials quoted by the agency assured that they would take "the strictest epidemic prevention measures" to avoid contact with climbers from the south.
These Chinese measures are announced while on the Nepalese side of the mountain, more than 30 medical evacuations from the base camp located at 5,364 meters above sea level have already taken place since the start of the season, some mountaineers being carriers of the coronavirus.
Nepal, India's neighbor, is hard hit by a second epidemic wave, while the Himalayan state planned to relaunch its tourism this summer after a 2020 season reduced to nothing.
© 2021 AFP