A groom in India has died and at least 95 guests have tested positive for Covid-19 after his family persuaded him to go ahead with the wedding despite displaying coronavirus-like symptoms.
Health bosses say the 30-year-old software engineer had complained of a fever prior to the ceremony, but his family said to take paracetamol to get through the wedding.
The groom's death cannot be firmly linked to coronavirus, as his body was cremated before it was tested. His bride has tested negative for the virus.
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According to Indian news outlet First Post, health department officials said that 15 of the man's relatives who attended the wedding tested positive. After contact tracing and testing more than 350 people, at least 95 tested positive.
The groom, who was based in Gurugram, a city just south west of New Delhi, had returned back to his hometown, a rural village in Patna district, Bihar, eastern India for the wedding.
Speaking to Business Today, officials anonymously said that the wedding's guests grossly flouted social distancing and lockdown rules.
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They confirmed that the family shouldn't have gone ahead with wedding, with social distancing rules stating only 50 people are allowed to meet at any wedding function. More than 350 people were at the ceremony.
A neighbour told reporters: "The groom, a software engineer in Gurugram, was having fever and he had insisted not to get married on June 15.
"However, his parents gave him some medication and persuaded him otherwise."
A local businessman, Rampravesh Rai, told the Hindustan Times the groom's dad was a school teacher, who had invited colleagues to the wedding to celebrate.
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Dr Abha Kumari, Paliganj, said news of his death spread rapidly among villagers, with a makeshift test centre set up to cope with demand.
He told the Times: "People who had participated in the wedding or were connected with the function in any way started arriving at the hospital to give their swab samples for tests."
But Dr Kumari said that when a medical team went to the groom's family's house, they told them he had died from a heart attack.
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The news outlet also said the dead man's family fled the town, fearing they would be reprimanded by villagers and accused of causing the coronavirus spike.
The district judge has ordered an investigation is launched to look into the matter.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: World News, Coronavirus