Groom dies two days after wedding, over 100 guests test positive for Covid-19 as kins refuse to cancel ritual
A groom in the Indian state of Bihar has died two days after his wedding while over 90 guests who attended the function have tested positive for coronavirus. Local media reports said that the 30-year-old man, whose name has not been revealed, was suffering from coronavirus-like symptoms before the wedding but under family pressure, he went ahead with the function.
Reports stated that the wedding took place on June 15 at a Paliganj village in rural Patna, Bihar, and two days after that on June 17, the man, a software engineer in India’s Gurugram, died. However, it was not clear whether he died from Covid-19 since his body was cremated before tests were done.
District Magistrate of Patna, Kumar Ravi, confirmed the incident, saying: “Someone called me and told me about this incident. Groom had returned from Gurugram and even though he was symptomatic, the family went ahead with the wedding. When his condition deteriorated, his family rushed to AIIMS-Patna but he died on the way.” Ravi also said that the family members of the deceased cremated the body without informing the administration, The Times of India reported.
“After getting the call from a local more than a week back, we collected the sample of the groom’s relatives and his neighbors and 15 people then tested positive. We then started tracing all the contacts who had attended the wedding and 80 people tested positive,” he added.
It has been said that the rituals of the wedding began on June 8, and the groom’s health started deteriorating from the next day only. He reportedly started getting loose motions. But instead of providing him medical treatment, locals said the man was taken to some quack and was not quarantined. “Even a day before his wedding procession, he collapsed and was shivering,” said an unnamed local resident. “He died on the day of his reception on June 17. The families of the bride, as well as groom, were educated, yet they ignored the boy’s heath as well as other norms while conducting marriage rituals,” added another one.
Another official, Block Development Officer of Paliganj, Chiranjeevi Pandey, said that they have sealed the areas where people had gone and attended the wedding. “We collected 300 samples, including those of vegetable sellers and all those involved in any kind of trade in the vicinity. Of them, 80 tested positive today. Now we are preparing the list of contacts of these 80 people,” Pandey added.
Meanwhile, another report has stated that around 300 people attended the wedding while 200 people attended the groom’s funeral. An investigation has been launched into the case since the family has violated the social distancing restrictions at both the gathering. At present in India, only 50 guests are allowed to attend a wedding while for the funeral only 20 are allowed. The country is one of the worst-affected nations in the world due to Covid-19 pandemic. Total confirmed cases in India are more than 600,000 while the number of death cases is over 17,000.