The Covid-19 pandemic is seen as an additional risk to nearly 3,000 residents in Batangas who were crammed in only 12 evacuation centers after the explosion of Taal Volcano, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) said Sunday, March 27.

NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal said that local DRRM offices were handing out face masks to the evacuees who were temporarily sheltered in evacuation centers in Laurel and Agoncillo towns to ensure they will have a protection against the virus.

“In our standard protocol in the process of evacuation, we encourage or require the evacuees to have their masks and ‘Go Bag’ before they go to the centers,” Timbal said in a radio interview over DZMM.

“It is also easier now to convince the residents to evacuate. So far, we are not hearing any form of resistance from them. If you will recall, it was only in 2020 when Taal had an activity like this so the residents already saw the importance of cooperating with the government in terms of evacuation,” he added.

The NDRRMC said 869 families or 2,961 individuals were affected by the continuing phreatomagmatic outburst of Taal Volcano since Saturday.

Of this, a total of 854 families or 2,894 individuals were being served by the different government agencies inside the evacuation centers. Others opted to stay in their relatives’ or friends’ houses.

“There are no more residents in Taal Volcano Island since it is considered a ‘No Man’s Land’ so we don’t have any evacuation activities there. The focus of our evacuation activities is in the five high-risk barangays that were identified by the local government unit (LGU) of Batangas,” Timbal said.

These high-risk barangays are Barangay Boso-Boso and Bugaan East in Laurel town; Barangay Bilibinwang and Banyaga in Agoncillo town; and Barangay Gulod in Calatagan.

So far, the NDRRMC has not monitored any untoward incident or casualty that is related to Taal’s unrest.

On the other hand, Timbal reminded local chief executives to strictly implement the policy of keeping one family in a modular tent or two families per classroom in evacuation centers to minimize the risk of Covid-19 infection.

Part of the arrangement during the evacuation is the monitoring of health situation of the evacuees in the centers.

“If you will remember, we had a vaccination program in the evacuation centers during the last Taal Volcano activity. We are hoping that a lot of residents are vaccinated now,” Timbal said.

Meanwhile, Timbal shared that the NDRRMC has already provided family food packs to the designated evacuation centers so that the evacuees will not go hungry.