ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Climate Change Zartaj Gul Wazir had social media in stitches on Saturday after she provided a novel definition of COVID-19.
"COVID-19 means that it has 19 points that can be applied in any country in any way," said during a current affairs show on PTV News.
Actually, COVID-19 means 'Coronavirus disease 2019'. The 'CO' in the word stands for corona, 'VI' for virus and 'D' for disease.Formerly, this disease was referred to as ‘2019 novel coronavirus’ or ‘2019-nCoV.’
Gul's novel definition of the virus stirred a storm on social media, with Twitterati posting her video clip defining the disease and taking shots at the minister for not knowing enough about it.
The minister took to Twitter a few hours after her video clip started trending on social media, to issue a clarification.
"Every day I appear on national TV and speak without a piece of paper (parchi)," she tweeted. "Wanted to say that the infections effect and intensity varies across different countries. Instead of crying on the situation over a minor mistake, maybe that will be better for them. I am not afraid of criticism, it strengthens me."