Groom's father dies after more than 80 people contract coronavirus at wedding
The father of a groom whose wedding days before New Zealand’s lockdown sparked the country’s largest cluster of coronavirus cases has died from the virus, local media reports.
Chrisanthos Tzanoudakis, 87, died in Wellington Hospital on April 10, 20 days after his son’s wedding on March 21 in Bluff on the south coast of South Island, NZ online publication Stuff.co.nz reported.
There are now 86 coronavirus cases linked to the wedding after many of the 70 guests, including the bride and groom, became ill.
Their wedding was four days before the national lockdown and at the time gatherings of less than 100 were allowed.
Yet the bride, who wishes not to be named, told Stuff last week the couple felt “lots of responsibility’ over the outbreak.
She previously stated no one from overseas had attended the wedding however, an Air New Zealand flight attendant was present and he is understood to be the first to fall ill.
According to a source, the flight attendant had returned to New Zealand from a work flight to the US just days before the wedding and was showing symptoms at the ceremony, the New Zealand Herald reported.
‘Much-loved man’
Tributes for Mr Tzanoudakis have since poured in online, led by the Cretans Association of New Zealand where he previously served as president.
The widower, who is originally from Crete, but had lived in Wellington for more than 50 years.
“He was a very much-loved man by all his family and friends and a well-respected member of the Cretan Association and the broader Greek Orthodox Community in Wellington,” the association wrote in a tribute on Facebook.
“At this time the family would like to grieve for their loving, kindest and warmest father and grandfather.”
Mr Tzadnoudakis’s death was New Zealand’s third, however, the death toll for the country has since risen to nine.
Despite the latest deaths, the number of active cases in New Zealand is dropping considerably.
The country reported just 17 new cases had been identified over the past 24 hours, while 82 Kiwis had recovered from the disease.
The total number of New Zealanders to contract the disease is 1366.
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