TWO more sugar migrant workers or "sacadas" from Antique have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, an official said.
Negros Occidental Provincial Incident Management Team (PIMT) head. Dr. Zeaphard Caelian, said there are now six sacadas who are positive for Covid-19.
A total of 600 sacadas, who are part of 5,000 laborers who will be working in sugarcane fields in the province, have been swabbed.
Caelian said after they arrived at the Bredco port in Bacolod City, the migrant workers underwent reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing and were transported to their quarantine quarters while awaiting their results.
The PIMT head said those who tested positive were immediately transported to the province's isolation facility in Silay City, while those who are negative are given the "all clear to work."
"We placed them on quarantine and isolated them from one another," Caelian said. "They belong from different quartels. There are some who will be working in Isabela, while others will be working in Kabankalan.
Earlier, four of the 300 sacadas who were part of the first batch of laborers who arrived in the province on October 9, tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The sacadas work mostly as cane cutters in the vast sugar plantations in the province, the Sugar Capital of the Philippines.