Coronavirus: Bindi Irwin and Chandler Powell's wedding may be canceled as Australia bans indoor gatherings
Steve Irwin's daughter Bindi and fiancé Chandler Powell's marriage, which was set to set take place at the Australia Zoo later this year, might be canceled amid coronavirus outbreak that has seen more than 200,000 people infected worldwide.
The news comes as the outbreak worsened in Australia, which has so far reported 568 cases of Covid-19 and six deaths.
In a bid to control the spread of coronavirus, the country's prime minister Scott Morrison announced on March 18 the banning of all non-essential indoor gatherings of more than 100 people.
The Irwins had recently been teasing details about the big wedding, which suggested that the couple were planning to go ahead with the event soon.
Irwin had revealed just last week that she had chosen the flowers for the wedding and posted a picture of herself, her brother Robert, 16, and Powell posing with the bouquets.
"Robert and Chandler kindly helped me choose the flowers for my bridal bouquet. They’ve been very supportive with all things wedding planning," she captioned the post, before asking her followers for any wedding advice they might have for her.
She had also shared that she would be walking down the aisle with a koala. "I'm not sure how many people have walked down the aisle with a koala, but we may be setting some new trends for weddings from here on out," she had said.
Even Robert Irwin had recently opened up about feeling nervous because he would have to step into his late father Steve Irwin's shows and walk his sister down the aisle.
He had said that it "meant everything" when she asked him to accompany her down the aisle and that he told her, "It was just so sweet of you to think of me to do that... I'm nervous, I'm not going to lie. There's a lot of pressure!"
"But I love Bindi and Chandler so much and together I know they'll achieve so much," he added.
Morrison announced the ban on the "non-essential indoor gatherings" following a meeting of cabinet officials. He said the government had declared a "biosecurity emergency" and described it as a "one in a hundred-year event."
"We haven't seen this sort of thing in Australia since the end of the First World War. But together, we are up to this challenge," he said.
However, he stopped short of imposing the kind of shutdown that is now in effect in most of the western hemisphere. Morrison confirmed schools, public transport, and public squares, as well as workplaces, prisons, and other "essential" places would remain open and operate as normal.