The Philippines reported its first suspected case of COVID-19 in January 2020.

It involved a 5-year-
old boy in Cebu, who arrived in the country on January 12 with his mother. [20] At that time, the
Philippines had no capability to conduct COVID-19 tests.[21][22] The boy tested positive for "non-
specific pancoronavirus assay" in the RITM. Samples from the boy were also sent to the Victorian
Infectious Disease Reference Laboratory in Melbourne, Australia to determine the specific
coronavirus strain.[20] The boy tested negative for COVID-19 but several suspected cases were
already reported in various parts of the country.[23]
The RITM developed capability to conduct confirmatory tests for COVID-19 in response to the
emergence of suspected COVID-19 cases. It started conducting confirmatory tests on January 30. [21]
[22]

The first case of COVID-19 in the Philippines was confirmed on the same day. The diagnosed
patient was a 38-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan, who had arrived in Manila from Hong Kong
on January 21.[2] She was admitted to the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila[24] on January 25 after she
sought a consultation due to a mild cough. At the time of the confirmation announcement, the
Chinese woman was already asymptomatic.[3]
The second case was confirmed on February 2, a 44-year-old Chinese male who was the
companion of the first case. His death on February 1 was the first recorded outside China. He
suffered from coinfection with influenza and Streptococcus pneumoniae.[25]
On

March 2020[edit]

Number of cases (blue) and number of deaths (red) on a logarithmic scale.

After a month of reporting no new cases, on March 6, the DOH announced two cases consisting of
two Filipinos. One is a 48-year-old man with a travel history to Japan, returning on February 25 and
reported symptoms on March 3.[27] The other is a 60-year-old man with a history of hypertension and
diabetes who experienced symptoms on February 25 and was admitted to a hospital on March 1
when he experienced pneumonia. He had last visited a Muslim prayer hall in San Juan.[27] The DOH
confirmed that the fifth case had no travel history outside the Philippines and is, therefore, the first
case of local transmission. A sixth case was later confirmed, that of a 59-year-old woman who is the
wife of the fifth case.[28] Since then, the Department of Health recorded a continuous increase in the
number of COVID-19 cases in the country.[29]
Cases abroad involving foreigners with travel history in the Philippines were reported in early March
2020. The first three recorded cases involving an Australian, a Japanese, and a Taiwanese national
had a history of visiting the Philippines in February 2020. Though it was unconfirmed whether or not
they had contracted the virus while in the Philippines, speculations arose on undetected local
transmissions in the country due to prior confirmation of the Philippines' first case of local
transmission.[30][31][32]
Diamond Princess cruise ship.[34]
Several measures were imposed to mitigate the spread of the disease in the country, including bans
on travel to mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and South Korea. On March 7, 2020,
the Department of Health (DOH) raised its "Code Red Sub-Level 1," with a recommendation to
the President of the Philippines to impose a "public health emergency" authorizing the DOH to
mobilize resources for the procurement of safety gear and the imposition of preventive quarantine
measures.[3] On March 9, President Rodrigo Duterte issued Proclamation No. 922, declaring the
country under a state of public health emergency. [35]
. On March 20, four facilities, namely the Southern Philippines Medical Center in Davao City, Vicente
Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City, Baguio General Hospital and Medical
Center in Benguet, and the San Lazaro Hospital in Manila (where the first case was admitted to),
began conducting tests as well augmenting the RITM.[40] Other facilities began operations as well in
the following days.[1]
On March 25, the President signed the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which gave him additional
powers to handle the outbreak.[41][42]