This article attempts to document the timeline of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines in 2020.
Timeline
January
January 29 - Department of Health (DOH) Secretary Francisco Duque III announced that the country is now equipped to test samples for novel coronavirus through the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) in Muntinlupa. Previously, the said laboratory could only test samples for SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, and DOH had been sending samples to the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL) in Melbourne, Australia.
January 30 - DOH confirmed the first case of COVID-19 in the country, from a 38-year-old Chinese woman after her confirmatory test results arrived from VIDRL. The said Chinese together with her husband which is a 44-years-old-Chinese national, arrived in the country from Wuhan, China via a Hong Kong-Cebu flight on January 21, 2020; travelled and arrived in Dumaguete on January 22, 2020; then they took a flight to Manila and finally admitted in San Lazaro Hospital on the same day on January 25, 2020, after experiencing symptoms.
February
February 2 – DOH confirmed the second case of novel coronavirus, which also then became the first recorded death outside China. Died on February 1, 2020, the said case is a 44-year-old-male Chinese companion of the first reported carrier. February 5 The first confirmed case of a Filipino citizen outside the Philippines was announced. The case is of a crew member of the cruise ship Diamond Princess quarantined off the coast of Yokohama, Japan. A total of 7 passengers and 531 crew members of the said ship are Filipinos. Eventually, 41 of them became confirmed cases. The third case in the country was confirmed, from a 60-year-old Chinese woman from Wuhan. She traveled from Wuhan via a Hong Kong-Cebu flight on January 20, and headed directly to Bohol. On January 22, she admitted in an undisclosed hospital in Tagbilaran City after experiencing symptoms. It is also the first reported case in the Visayas, Central Visayas, and Bohol. February 9–22 – Repatriates from Wuhan were quarantined at the New Clark City in Capas, Tarlac. None of them displayed any symptoms during the quarantine period and was released after they were cleared for the disease.