A groom died two days after his marriage and 95 others, a majority of those who had attended the wedding ceremony, were found to be positive in Bihar.
The ceremony took place on June 15 at village Deehpali in Paliganj of Patna district. The 30-year-old groom, a software engineer from Gurugram in Haryana, had come to his village for his wedding.
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He was said to be unwell at the time of his wedding and having symptoms of COVID-19 but, under family pressure, went ahead with the function.
Two days later, on June 17, he died even before he could reach Patna’s All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) but was cremated without being tested for COVID-19.
Later, a few villagers informed the Patna district administration about the groom’s death and a team of doctors and para-medics rushed to the village to collect samples of those who attended the ceremony.
Interactive map of confirmed coronavirus cases in India
The samples of 15 of them were found to be positive for COVID-19. On Monday, 80 more people tested positive for the disease.
“Many of the people who have tested positive for COVID-19 are those who had attended the marriage ceremony”, said a health official.
The district administration later said there was negligence and violation of guidelines of COVID-19 by the family that went ahead with the wedding despite the groom showing symptoms of the disease.
Meanwhile, according to the State Health Department, the number of deaths in Bihar due to coronavirus has gone up to 63 and positive cases touched 9,618, with 7,374 people recovering from the disease. As many as 2,12,659 sample tests have also been done.