12 Polo employees in Qatar test positive for coronavirus

The Philippine Overseas Labor Office (Polo) in Qatar was temporarily closed down after almost all of its employees and nearly a hundred migrant workers under its care were infected with the coronavirus.

Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said on Friday that he had ordered the temporary shutdown of Polo Qatar after 12 of their 15 employees were confirmed positive for COVID-19.

He added that the 92 overseas workers staying in their Bahay Kalinga also got infected.

“For now I had our office there closed. It’s on lockdown. But [our employees] are working from home,” he said in a radio interview. Bello said they were still trying to determine how the infection spread there. —Jovic Yee