Typhoon Odette has dampened the Christmas spirit in the Philippines as hundreds of thousands of people in Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation are struggling without homes, adequate food and water, electricity and mobile connections.
Last week the typhoon left at least 375 people dead and devastated mostly central island provinces while over 371,000 houses were either damaged or blown away in the storm.
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Millions of people were trooping back to shopping centres, public parks and churches before Typhoon Odette hit on December 16.
This followed after an alarming spike in Covid-19 infections in September eased considerably in recent weeks, with more vaccinations and lighter quarantine restrictions keeping Omicron cases in the country to just three so far.
Governor Arthur Yap has asked foreign aid agencies to help provide temporary shelters and water filtration systems to supplement Philippine government aid.
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