We’re vir tually at the summit!

PEOPLE with limited vision are “climbing” their favourite mountains again, thanks to virtual reality headsets.

Jason Turnbull makes videos of his climbs on a 360-degree camera and shows it to visually impaired military veterans on VR headsets

Keen climbers no longer able to make the ascent themselves have been overwhelmed by the experience, which they say is “like being back on the hills”

Because the VR headset lenses are close to their eyes, the veterans can experience the video footage like everyone else macular degeneration, had to give up her hill walking due to her vision impairment

She said: “The VR is just wonderful It is just like you are back there again It brings back so many happy memories for me I can see the whole landscape, all the tremendous views It really is like I am walking up the hills again ”

Jason was inspired to begin filming after watching 360-degree videos on YouTube

“I thought ‘I can do better than that’ So I bought a 360-degree camera and took it up the hills with me

“I then began showing the footage to the veterans who were keen walkers, and those who weren’t, and there was a very positive reaction ”

MORE people from ethnic minority groups died or suffered severe illness during the pandemic because their risk of infection was greater

Researchers who analysed results from 77 research studies across the world – covering 200 million people – found that the biggest driver of ethnic inequalities was exposure to the virus

Five UK universities were involved in examining the figures which showed that compared to the white majority group, South Asian people were three times more likely to test positive for infection, black people 1 8 times more likely, and mixed and other ethnic groups 1 3 times more likely

Among studies that looked at the risk of severe illness or death from Covid-19 in the whole population, black people were 1 5 times more likely to be admitted to hospital than the white majority, indigenous people 1 9 times more likely and Hispanic people 1 32 times more likely

Intensive care