Philippines scales down mass vaccinations as typhoon approaches

FILE PHOTO: A health worker inoculates a colleague with a booster shot of COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine as the government begins to provide them to front-liners, at the National Kidney and Transplant Institute in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, November 17, 2021. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez/File Photo

MANILA (Reuters) - An incoming typhoon has forced the Philippines to delay COVID-19 vaccinations of millions of people living in the path of the storm, as authorities hastened preparations in anticipation of its arrival this week.

Typhoon Rai is expected to hit land on Thursday, bringing strong winds and rain in the central Philippines in what would be the 15th typhoon, and one of the strongest, to hit the Southeast Asian archipelago this year. Thousands have been preemptively evacuated.