Palace says COVID-19 messaging 'by and large effective'

Government announcements about the coronavirus pandemic are "by and large effective" and "organized," Malacañang said Friday after the health department retracted a statement that the Philippines was on the second wave of infections.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Wednesday told senators that the Philippines was already on its second wave, which Palace officials and his agency later denied.

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"Organized naman po [ang government announcements], kaya lang Senate hearing iyon, siyempre medyo natataranta ang ibang kasama natin. Medyo iba ang nasasabi," Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque told DZMM.

"Pero by and large, until nangyari naman po ang insidente na ito, it has been centralized and it has been rather effective," he added.

(Government announcements are organized, but that's a Senate hearing, some of our colleagues get rattled. They give conflicting statements. But by and large, until that incident, it has been centralized and it has been rather effective.)

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Experts from the University of the Philippines earlier flagged "alarming errors" on the health department's data on patients with COVID-19, which also mismatched the tally of local governments.

The agency said it had corrected errors on its novel coronavirus data which comprise "less than 1 percent" of the information that served as basis for putting millions of Filipinos under lockdown.

DZMM, May 22, 2020