A wedding ceremony organised in rural Patna on June 15 has set off a biggest Covid-19 infection chain. The wedding was attended by more than 350 people where the groom was running high fever. The groom died two days after the wedding whereas 111 guests have tested positive. The body of the bridegroom was cremated without being tested for coronavirus.
The incident happened in Paliganj sub-division of Patna district, about 55 km from the state capital. The groom, who was an engineer in Gurgaon, drove down to Patna for his wedding. During the wedding his condition became critical and he was rushed to Patna hospital for diarrhoea – a possible COVID-19 symptom.
The case came in light only when an anonymous call was made to Patna’s District Magistrate Sri Kumar Ravi. The caller said that the groom started showing the symptoms of the disease a few days after the ‘tilak’ ceremony and even after his death he was not tested for Covid.
After the caller informed that the body of the deceased was cremated in a huff, all close relatives who attended the marriage ceremony, were tested on June 19. After the reports of 15 relatives tested positive special camp was set up in the same village to to collect samples of all the guests who attended the wedding.
A probe has been ordered by the district magistrate to investigate how more than 50 people were allowed, against the directives, to attend the wedding.
Bihar currently has 9,744 confirmed COVID-19 cases so far.