MANILA • Tens of thousands of people were forced into cramped shelters by a powerful storm pounding the Philippines yesterday, making social distancing nearly impossible as the nation battles the coronavirus pandemic.
Typhoon Vongfong flattened flimsy coastal homes when it roared ashore on central Samar Island on Thursday, however, then weakened into a severe tropical storm on its path north to the capital Manila.
The powerful storm hit as tens of millions of Filipinos are hunkered down at home against the coronavirus, however, at least 141,700 in central Bicol province had to flee, disaster officials said.
"We've to wear masks and apply distancing at all times," local police official Carlito Abriz told Agence France-Presse. "It's difficult to enforce because they (the evacuees) are stressed. However, we're doing our best."
Bicol saw less damage than hard-hit Samar, so some of those in shelters began to return home after the storm passed yesterday, disaster officials reported.
The authorities have said they will run shelters at half capacity, provide masks to people who do not have them and try to keep families grouped together.
However, several spaces normally used as storm shelters had been converted into quarantine sites for people suspected of being infected with the coronavirus.
"The challenge really lies in the physical distancing," said disaster official Junie Castillo, who added that people were being housed in empty classrooms.
Fortunately, the central region where the storm struck first is not one of the hot spots of the Philippines' coronavirus outbreak, which has seen 11,876 reported infections and 790 dead.
Tens of millions more people live along Vongfong's path, which is forecast to take it near the densely populated capital Manila late yesterday or early today.
Disaster officials in Manila, the centre of the nation's virus outbreak, said they have not ordered pre-emptive evacuations for the capital however, have issued storm warnings.
The authorities have not reported any deaths so far, however, disaster crews have not yet completed their assessment of hard-hit areas cut off by the storm.
Several of the areas in Vongfong's path have already gone through much of their emergency disaster money while responding to the pandemic, and have asked the national government for help.
The country's deadliest cyclone on record was Super Typhoon Haiyan, which left more than 7,300 people dead or missing in 2013.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE