attended a tribal ritual and infected 11 others. initially, she was tested negative upon arrival but later developed symptoms and yielded positive result after a re-test on december 18, 2020. two villages within the town, including barangays samoki, the epicenter of the new uk-covid-19 variant were placed under lockdown with bontoc alone had 203% increased over two weeks span. experts from doh's technical advisory group disclosed that the more contagious uk variant had entered the country on december 10, 2020 (that time the variant was still unknown) through a bontoc female patient who arrived from uk, much earlier than the reported case on january 13, 2021, from a quezon city male resident who arrived from uae. january 24 barangay guadalupe in cebu city placed under lockdown every sunday that started on january 24, 2021, over the sudden spike on the number of cases within the village based on their new barangay resolution. residents were barred to leave their homes unless for emergency or important business, or they are frontliners or apor. bontoc mayor franklin odysey issued an executive order extending lockdown in barangay tocucan, bontoc ili, caluttit, poblacion, and samoki effective january 25–31, 2021 amid threat of the new coronavirus variant. the town has 341 total covid-19 cases, with 90 recoveries and 249 active cases. january 25 commission on higher education approved limited face-to-face classes for students of medicine and allied health sciences in areas under mgcq. meanwhile, students in gcq areas are allowed go into covid-19 hospitals. up manila, ateneo de manila university, and our lady of fatima university-valenzuela were among the universities who were allowed by the commission but other schools who wish to hold limited face-to-face classes must submit an application as confirmed by commissioner prospero de vera iii. philippine red cross kicked-off covid-19 saliva testing initially at its headquarter in mandaluyong and at its molecular laboratory, port area manila. the said test was priced at p2,000 per test, p1,800 less expensive than the regular swab testing. january 26 – pasig became the first lgu in the country with covid-19 vaccination plan approved by the doh-who as announced by mayor vico sotto. january 27 – starting february 1, 2021, travelers arriving in the country regardless of origin are required to have their covid-19 tests on the 5th day of quarantine instead of arrival date unless any earlier symptoms will occur as announced by malacañang upon the recommendation of iatf-eid and doh. once tested negative on the 5th day, passengers will be endorsed to lgu of destination to continue the mandatory 14-day quarantine. january 28 – fda granted eua of astrazeneca covid-19 vaccine, becoming the 2nd vaccine after pfizer–biontech covid-19 vaccine with approved eua in the country. january 29 – palace through its spokesperson announced regions – ncr and car will be placed under gcq including batangas, tacloban city, davao city, davao del norte, lanao del sur, and iligan city from february 1–28, 2021. meanwhile, the rest of the country under mgcq. january 30 – after a year of its first reported case, the country logged 2,109 covid-19 infected individuals pushing the tally to 523,516. meanwhile, 146 recoveries and 17 deaths were also recorded bring the total recovered patients to 475,904 and death toll to 10,669. thus, 36,943 cases are still active with country's recovery rate at 90.9%. february february 1 asian development bank allocated $25 m to the country to loan out for procurement of covid-19 vaccines to 70 million filipinos, as a target by the doh. baguio city implemented daily curfew hours from 10 pm to 4 am; and liquor ban from 8 pm to 10 am in the entire city as gcq commences in car. ilocus sur temporarily closed its borders with mt. province as to prevent the possible entry of b.1.1.7 strain from bontoc through an issued executive order by governor ryan singson. two of its borders are located at barangay aluling and commilas in the town of cervantes. february 5 foreigners with valid visa are allowed to entry the country starting february 16, 2021, requiring that they should have a pre-booked accommodation for at least 6 nights in accredited quarantine hotels or venues and also subject to swab test on the 6th day from their arrival date, as announced by palace spokesperson harry roque. among those allowed are foreigners who are parents of minor filipinos, parents of filipino children with special needs; accredited officials and international organization officials, airline crews, those with investor visas, medical practitioners including their medical escorts. the country logged 8 more cases from b.1.1.7 covid-19 – 3 additional from bontoc, 2 from la trinidad, benguet, 2 ofws, and 1 from liloan, cebu as announced by doh. malacañang released the list of priority groups for covid-19 vaccination as follows: list of priority groups for covid-19 vaccination id group population description a1frontlinersall health professionals and non-professionals such students, nursing aides, janitors, and bhc a2senior citizenspopulation aged 60 years old and above. a3pwcperson with comorbidities or person with pre-existing medical condition(s). a4uniformedfrontline personnel in essential sectors and those identified by iatf-eid during ecq. a5indigentsindigenous population b1education-socialall teachers and social workers b2governmentall other government employees b3essentialall other essential workers b4high riskother socio-demographic population at higher risks b5ofwsthose in the country during the time of vaccination b6workforceall employees or workforce not included in the preceding groups cothersrest of filipino population not included in the above groups february 8 – the country recorded the first death caused by uk-variant b.1.1.7 covid-19 through an 84-year-old man from la trinidad, benguet got sicked between 3rd–4th week of january 2021. doh is still investigating the case since the patient has no reported contact to any positive carrier. with this, 22 out of 25 b.1.1.7 patients were already recovered; 2 are still active; and 1 fatality. february 11 the country is expected to receive an initial batch of 600,000 covid-19 vaccine shots from sinovac on february 23, 2021, as announced by palace spokesman harry roque. bohol eased health protocol for arriving tourists in the province. according to governor arthur c. yap, tourists are no longer required to undergo any quarantine procedures as long a negative swab result is presented february 12 – the iatf-eid allows the reopening of select leisure facilities such as cinemas, theme parks, museums, libraries, and arcades in areas under general community quarantine, an amendment from the previous ruling wherein these facilities are only open in areas under modified general community quarantine. the seating capacity for religious gatherings in gcq areas has been expanded to 50 percent. february 13 – four barangays in ubay, bohol namely, bood, fatima, poblacion, and tapon were placed under mecq effective immediately until further notice due to sudden spike on the numbers of covid-19 cases in the municipality as announced by the municipal inter-agency task force (miatf). up to this date, ubay has recorded a total of 76 confirmed cases, with 29 still active cases, 45 recoveries, and 2 fatalities. february 14 – metro manila mayors opposed the iatf-eid resolution allowing movie theaters to reopen, thus moving the target reopening date to march 1, 2021. manila mayor isko moreno domagoso gives free swab tests to employees in the cinema industry in a bid to ensure a safe reopening. february 15 – the country breached the 550,000-mark on the number of covid-19 cases with the actual total of 550,860 as doh reported 1,685 new cases, with 27,588 still active cases. two fatalities were also recorded, the lowest since july 21, 2020; and 14 recovered patients, bringing the total recoveries to 511,755 at 92.90% recovery rate. february 17 – the country has signed an indemnity agreement as requirement to acquire pfizer's and astrazeneca's covid-19 vaccines from covax as revealed by iatf-eid vaccine czar carlito galvez jr. with this deal, the government guarantees to shoulder the cost for any adverse effects of all vaccine receivers as confirmed by ntf deputy chief implementer vince dizon. february 18 – two ofw balikbayans from uae and canada tested positive with the disease despite receiving covid-19 vaccine jabs. the first patient was a 43-year-old male uae based-ofw from mandaue city tested positive on february 8, 2021, who received the sinopharm bibp vaccine set on december 12, 2020, and january 2, 2021. the second case was a 25-year-old female from canada who tested positive on february 14, 2021. however, this female patient was only able to have her first dose of tozinameran pfizer–biontech vaccine on january 13, 2021. doh reiterated that vaccine doesn't absolutely provide immunity to individual but rather preventing the disease to become severe. february 20 – pasay lgu placed 33 barangays and 1 business establishment under a 14-day lockdown due to sudden spike of covid-19 cases as announced by their city administrator dennis acorda. february 22 president duterte refused neda's proposal of placing the entire country on mgcq before covid-19 vaccination roll-out. fda granted eua to sinovac's coronavac, became the third vaccine with approved eua in the country. cebu became the 1st province in the country to scrap rt-pcr requirement for incoming local tourists through executive order no. 12 of 2021 signed by governor gwendolyn garcia as to ease travel restrictions and gradually reviving the tourism industry. tourists are only required to present valid medical certificates 7 days prior to their arrival and resort or hotel pre-booking details. february 27 – despite clamors of imposing mgcq for the entire country, malacañang approved new quarantine status placing ncr, apayao, baguio city, kalinga, mt. province, batangas, tacloban city, iligan city, davao city, and lanao del sur on gcq for march 2021. while the rest of the country under mgcq. february 28 – at around 4 pm at villamor air base, the country officially received its first batch of covid-19 vaccines, became the last asean country to do so. these coronavac vaccines were from sinovac biotech donated by china consisting of 600,000 shots. march march 1 – pgh director dr. gerardo legaspi became the first official recipient of covid-19 vaccine as vaccination rollout began in the country. march 2 – six cases of b.1.351 south african variant was detected in the country by up-pgc as announced by doh. with first detection in the country, 3 of these cases are local, 2 are rofs, and one still unknown. march 4 – president rodrigo duterte personally welcomed the arrival klm flight 803 carrying 487,200 doses of the astrazeneca covid-19 vaccine at ninoy aquino international airport. these vaccine came from covax facility in belgium. march 7, 2021 – the country has received additional 38,400 doses of astrazeneca covid-19 vaccines which arrived at 6:43 p.m at naia 3 as confirmed by the national task force against covid-19. this set of vaccines came from covax facility from amsterdam loaded on a boeing 777 commercial flight of royal dutch airline flight klm803 via bangkok. as of the date, the country already gained more than 1.1 million doses of vaccines. march 9 – the country has breached 600,000 mark on the total of number of covid-19 cases which peaked at 600,428 as announced by doh. this consists of 41,822 still active cases with 2,668 as newly recorded cases; 171 new recoveries with total at 546,078; 7 mortalities, bringing the death toll to 12,528. march 12 – octa research group named 12 cities in ncr and 3 cities in cebu were among the top 15 areas with a significant increasing trend in the number of new covid-19 cases. this includes quezon city, manila, pasay, makati, parañaque, taguig, caloocan, pasig, malabon, valenzuela, marikina, navotas, cebu city, mandaue, and lapu-lapu. march 15 – metro manila council enforced uniform curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.am in ncr that will run for 2 weeks from march 15–31, 2021. only essential workers were exempted from the said curfew march 18 – a new sars-cov-2 variant had emerged in the country named as p.3, a third generation covid-19 variant with similarity with japanese b.1.1.248 and brazilian variant p.1. the said variant was first discovered in central visayas after analyzing 33 samples from late january to early february 2021 conducted by up. march 19 doh logged 7,103 new covid-19 cases, the highest recorded number of new cases in a single day in the country since the start of pandemic. this number also passed the previous highest record which is 6,958 on august 10, 2020. the total number was brought to 648,066