Monday meeting on nCoV 'timely' due to patient's death on Saturday — Andanar
MANILA, Philippines—An emergency meeting four days after the Department of Health confirmed the first case of novel coronavirus in the country is not late at all, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Monday.
Over the weekend, a second case of the 2019-noCoV acute respiratory disease was confirmed. The patient, the 44-year-old partner of the Chinese woman who was the first confirmed case, died on Saturday.
"It’s not late. In fact, very timely ang desisyon ng gobyerno (the decision of the government is very timely)," Andanar, head of the president's information agency, said in a Palace press briefing.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "timely" means "coming early or at the right time" but can also mean "appropriate or adapted to the times."
He was reacting to criticisms on the supposed delayed emergency meeting.
The World Health Organization declared an international emergency over the deadly 2019-nCoV ARD last week.
'It's timely because a patient died over the weekend'
Despite this, Andanar said the decision to hold the meeting on Monday afternoon is “methodical.”
“‘Yung meeting mamaya nagkataon na timely because nung weekend namatay ‘yung pasyente na galing pa sa China and unfortunately the first death outside China,” he said.
(The meeting later is coincidentally timely because the patient from China just died this weekend and unfortunately (it is) the first death outside China)
The presidential communications chief said he is not privy to who will be at the emergency meeting, saying only that select Cabinet members were invited.
“Hindi lahat, (Not all)” he said.
Andanar stressed there is no case of Filipinos infected by the 2019-nCoV ARD.
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