COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines
The COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first case in the Philippines was identified on January 30, 2020, and involved a 38-year-old Chinese woman who was confined at San Lazaro Hospital in Metro Manila.[b] On February 1, a posthumous test result from a 44-year-old Chinese man turned out positive for the virus, making the Philippines the first country outside China to record a confirmed death from the disease.
Map of provinces (including Metro Manila) with confirmed cases (as of October 29, 2021)
≥100000
10000–99999
5000–9999
1000–4999
500–999
100–499
50–99
10–49
1–9
After over a month without recording any cases, the Philippines confirmed its first local transmission on March 7, 2020.[9][10] Since then, the virus has spread to the country's 81 provinces.[11] National and local governments have been imposing community quarantines since March 15, 2020, as a measure to limit the spread of the virus.[12] These include the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) that was implemented in March–May 2020.[c][13] On March 24, President Rodrigo Duterte signed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, a law that granted him additional powers to handle the pandemic. This was repealed by a follow-up law, the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act, which he signed on September 11.[14]
As of December 1, 2021, 2,832,375[1] cases have been reported, resulting in 48,501[1] reported deaths, the second-highest in Southeast Asia, behind Indonesia.[2][15][16] The largest single-day increase in the number of confirmed cases was reported on September 11, 2021, when the Department of Health (DOH) announced 26,303 new cases.[17]
The Philippines had a slightly lower testing capacity than its neighbors in Southeast Asia during the first months of the pandemic in the country.[18][19] COVID-19 tests had to be taken in Australia, as the Philippines lacked testing kits.[20][21] By the end of January 2020, the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa, Metro Manila began its testing operations and became the country's first testing laboratory.[22] The DOH has since then accredited 279 laboratories that are capable of detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[23] As of September 10, 2021, 277 of these have conducted 19,742,325 tests from more than 18,551,810 unique individuals.[2][3]