Before the pandemic started, the Philippines was seen to have steady economic growth, becoming one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia with an average GDP of 6.3 percent over the ten years until 2019.
However, the onset of the global health crisis brought the country's economy into recession, breaking almost three decades of uninterrupted growth. Since the pandemic started, the country’s COVID-19 cases are now over 1.6 million as per the Department of Health (DOH) data.
Major metropolitan areas like Metro Manila, Cebu, and Davao, posted the bulk of the COVID-19 cases, and various degrees of community quarantine is implemented to control the spread of the virus.