大象传媒

At least 157 people have been killed in Indonesia and neighbouring East Timor - also known as Timor-Leste -with dozens more still missing after a tropical cyclone battered the Southeast Asian nations, leaving thousands homeless. The situation is so dramatic that in one area, on Lembata island, authorities feared bodies had been washed away.

Covid-19 is another concern. Despite previously low levels of transmission, in the last month numbers have started to creep up - and now many people will have to live in shelters together, having lost their homes.

Dr Joshua Francis is a pediatrican and infectious diseases specialist working in Dili. He says the national health laboratory which processes Covid tests was completely flooded by mud and water on Sunday - but is already back up and running thanks to an 'enormous effort' from scientists and labourers to clean it up.

"The people of this country are incredibly resilient and courageous... it was about this time last year that there were some terrible floods in Dili with lives lost, and so to be facing similar circumstances but in a much larger scale this year is a real challenge."

(Photo: A damaged road in the aftermath of floods in Dili. Credit: EPA)

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