As of 30 June 2021, parts of the Philippines remain under different levels of community quarantine. Reported cases on 30 June 2021 remained high at 4,509, for a total of 48,649 active cases, with 2.4% of the population having been fully vaccinated.
The country reported its first case of Covid-19 on 30 January 2020 and its first fatality shortly after, on 2 February 2020. On 8 March 2020, a day after the first recorded local transmission of the virus, the Philippine President promulgated Proclamation No 922, declaring a state of public health emergency throughout the country due to Covid-19 and calling upon all Government agencies and local government units to mobilise the necessary resources 'to curtail and eliminate the threat of Covid-19.' This was followed on 16 March 2020 by a declaration of a state of calamity throughout the Philippines for a period of six months and the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine in the island of Luzon. The state of calamity has since been extended to 12 September 2021. Various measures were subsequently taken by the Government, at the national and local levels, to control the transmission of the disease and to mitigate the pandemic’s impact on the general public and the country’s economy.
By 25 March 2020, emergency legislation was passed, establishing a comprehensive Government approach in addressing the health and economic impact of the pandemic. Predicated on the serious threat to health and safety posed by Covid-19, the Philippine Congress passed the Bayanihan to Heal As One Act ('Bayanihan Act') declaring a state of national emergency, setting out the national policy, and authorizing the President to 'exercise such powers that are necessary and proper to carry out the declared national policy', and granted the President the power to adopt a set of 'temporary emergency measures to respond to the crisis brought by the pandemic,' in effect for only three months from the publication of the Bayanihan Act. The temporary measures applied to various activities, sectors, and industries: Government budget and procurement, health, health care workers and supplies, social amelioration and safety nets, availability of adequate supply of goods and services, protection and preservation of human resources and employment, support for business and enterprises, and regulation of transport sector. The Bayanihan Act expired on 25 June 2020. In September 2020, the Bayanihan to Recover As One Act was passed, granting emergency powers to the President for purposes of further implementing the country’s Covid-19 response and recovery interventions and providing mechanisms to accelerate the recovery of the country’s economy. This law expired in June 2021, without benefitting from an extension. It has been reported that funds allocated under the law remained unspent, with pandemic response programs unfunded.
In February 2021, the Covid-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 was passed, to support the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines by the national Government, and authorizing local governments to participate in the procurement of vaccines and allowing private entities to procure vaccines in coordination with the Philippine Department of Health and the National Task Force Against Covid-19. The law also provides for the issuance of the Covid-19 vaccine card. The Philippine Food and Drug Administration has issued emergency use authorization (EUA) for various vaccines.