COVID-19: Nepal urges mountaineers to bring back canisters amid oxygen shortage

Amid oxygen shortage, Nepal Mountaineering Association has requested climbers of the ongoing Spring Expedition to bring back their canisters so that they can be refilled to supply the medical gas to COVID-19 patients. According to ANI, the NMA urged climbers to bring back their empty or unused oxygen cylinders as coronavirus infection in Nepal is surging and patients are gasping for oxygen. In recent weeks, Nepal’s daily case trajectory has shot up with two out of five people testing positive.

Santa Bir Lama, President of NMA, told the media agency, “We now are facing the second wave of infection which has created grave kind of situation and crisis, matter is going out of hand. Cylinders (Oxygen) which arrived back from the expedition can be used at this hour of crisis. We are lending our hands to government, various associations and those who are working on it”. 

Lama added, “In the ongoing expedition all the climbers are on base camp, they possess ample number of cylinders. We have requested owners and operators to bring back cylinders immediately after completion of expedition to use it for the benefit of people”. 

COVID-19 outbreak in Nepal 

Usually, oxygen canisters are left on slopes and ridges of mountains, however, with rising cases, the NMA has communicated with the expedition organisers and agents requesting them to bring back the cylinders for refilling. As per reports, hospitals in the capital city, Kathmandu, are flooded with coronavirus patients who are lying on the ground gasping for life-saving gas due to the limited number of oxygen gas cylinders available. Dozens of patients in recent weeks have already lost their lives due to the shortage of oxygen cylinders. 

ANI reported that Kathmandu on average needs 15,000 oxygen gas cylinders on daily basis at the current time. It is also expected that the number might run high in the coming days as the peak of the ongoing pandemic is expected in the coming month. Even though empty oxygen gas cylinders are being outsourced from various countries, the gap between available cylinders and their demand on a daily basis is widening. 

Expedition agencies, on the other hand, have welcomed the decision of NMA and said, “We have a lot of oxygen for mountaineering so we neither face shortage nor have any problems. The public are now facing the problem with the wide-spreading coronavirus outbreak and are having problem in the supply of oxygen. Seven Summit Treks have around one thousands bottles (of oxygen), when the empty cylinders come back here we can provide them to government which they can refill with the medical oxygen and use it for patients of COVID-19”. 

(With inputs from ANI)