Groom, 30, dies as wedding sparks coronavirus outbreak

A man has died two days after his wedding, with the event sparking more than 100 positive coronavirus cases in the community.

The wedding was held in Bihar, in India’s east, on June 15 Hindustan Times reports.

A relative told The Indian Express the groom, 30, wanted the wedding postponed as he was feeling sick.

“Even though he was feeling unwell by June 14 and wanted the wedding deferred, family heads from both sides advised against it, citing huge financial losses if the arrangements had to be cancelled,” they told the paper.

Relatives gave him paracetamol and the wedding went ahead.

Two days later his condition got worse and he was rushed to hospital but died along the way.

He was cremated before he could be tested for coronavirus.

His relatives were tested on June 19, and 15 returned positive results. More than 350 guests attended the wedding, NDTV reported.

Authorities tested 364 people in the surrounding villages where the wedding was held, of which 113 were confirmed to have COVID-19. It’s not clear if all these people attended the wedding.

India's coronavirus infections surpassed 600,000 on Thursday, with 17,834 deaths, as authorities battled to contain the pandemic while easing lockdown rules, officials and the health ministry said.

Fresh challenges to protect people from the virus emerged for disaster management officials in the northeast state of Assam amid torrential rainfall, where floods and landslides killed 57 people this week and more than 1.5 million were forced to flee their homes.

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Assam's health minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, said the state had started testing aggressively to identify coronavirus cases among villagers forced to take shelter in community halls, schools and government buildings.

"We were isolating new coronavirus hotspots; the situation is very critical," Mr Sarma told Reuters.

The increase in infections presents a severe challenge for India's strained medical capacity and overburdened health system.

The fear of being quarantined in poorly maintained government facilities has discouraged people from getting tested, experts say, leading to fresh cases of COVID-19 even after the government imposed the world's longest lockdown.

An easing phase called "Unlock 2" was announced on Monday, allowing more economic activities to resume.

But the western state of Maharashtra reported a record jump of 5,537 coronavirus infections on Wednesday, prompting authorities to again impose a stringent lockdown in areas around the financial capital, Mumbai, forcing people to stop commuting in a city largely dependent on public transport.

The state accounts for more than a fifth of total infections in the country and nearly half of the deaths, has reported a total of 180,297 infections including 8052 deaths so far.

- with Reuters

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