A Philippine government agency reported on Monday that at least 628 people took ill after being displaced in shelters due to the eruption of Mayon Volcano, the most active volcano in that country.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council said it recorded at least 10 kinds of sicknesses affecting the evacuees, aged between two and 64.

The illnesses include cough, cold, fever, gastroenteritis, acute respiratory infection and skin disease.

The disaster management agency said nearly 39,000 people were affected by Mayon’s eruption, which started on June 8.

Local authorities have evacuated more than 20,000 villagers in the danger zone around the picturesque, cone-shaped Mayon Volcano in Albay province, approximately 500 km southeast of the Philippine capital Manila.

The province, under a state of calamity, set up 28 evacuation centres for displaced people, usually in school classrooms.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology recorded pyroclastic flows from the volcano’s collapsed lava domes that lasted three minutes.

Steam-laden plumes rose to 600 metres, and the institute maintained the volcano’s alert level at three on a scale of five.

Mayon Volcano last erupted in 2018, evacuating over 23,000 people from nine cities and municipalities. 

(Xinhua/NAN)