Typhoon forces 140,000 from homes in virus-hit Philippines

Tens of thousands of people crammed into evacuation centres while trying to follow social distance protocols Friday, as a powerful typhoon hammered the Philippines, AFP reports. 

Typhoon Vongfong has dumped heavy rains and torn off roofs since it roared ashore on central Samar island Thursday, with hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in its path on the coast or in flimsy homes.

The storm hit as tens of millions of Filipinos are hunkered down at home against the coronavirus, but at least 141,700 have had to flee because of the powerful storm, disaster officials said.

"We have to wear masks and apply distancing at all times," local police official Carlito Abriz told AFP. "It's difficult to enforce because they (the evacuees) are stressed. But we are doing our best."

Authorities have said they will run shelters at half of capacity, provide masks to people who don't have them and try to keep families grouped together.

However, many spaces normally used as storm shelters have been converted into quarantine sites for people suspected of being infected with coronavirus.

"The challenge really lies in the physical distancing," said disaster official Junie Castillo, who added they were housing people in classrooms emptied by the pandemic.

Fortunately the central region where the storm struck first is not one of the hotspots of the Philippines' outbreak, which has seen 11,876 reported infections and 790 dead.

News.Az 

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