A Wedding in Rural India Became a COVID-19 ‘Super Spreader’ in the State

The groom is dead and at least 79 of the 300-odd guests have tested positive for COVID-19 after a wedding ritual in the East Indian state of Bihar led to arguably the biggest infection chain in the region.

The wedding took place on June 15 in the Dehpali village in the Paliganj city of Patna district.

While the wedding itself did not violate the government’s norms restricting large gatherings, a pre-wedding ritual was attended by 300-odd guests, who also travelled from the adjoining towns of Naubatpur and Bihta.

The groom, who reportedly had a fever during the wedding, died two days after. He was a software engineer who travelled home in the last week of May from his place of work in the North Indian city of Gurugram, and was cremated without being tested for the novel coronavirus.

Chiranjeev Pandey, Block Development Officer of Paliganj, told VICE News that 79 guests have since tested positive for COVID-19.

The Indian Express reported that 113 were infected while stating that the number of attendees at 360. Someone reportedly tipped off the district authorities about the death and all the attendees were tested on June 19.

There are no more deaths at the time of writing. “In fact, 20 people have recovered and gone home since the day they tested positive,” said Pandey.

The positive cases spiked between June 24 and 26 when a special camp was set up to test the wedding’s attendees. Officials also sealed parts of the neighbouring areas and sub-urban marketplace in Paliganj.

After the Government of India mandated lockdown was eased up in June, Unlock 1.0 allowed for certain freedoms. One of them was wedding ceremonies, which still has a cap of 50 persons. Pandey said the officials were not informed about the event. “The guidelines were observed during the wedding itself, but the tilak ceremony (in which the groom is blessed), which was held on a different day, had more people,” he said.

Bihar has 10,043 confirmed COVID-19 cases at the moment. The state reportedly has one of the lowest testing rates per million people in the country.

In some urban pockets, the pandemic forced the ‘big fat Indian weddings’ to become small, intimate and even digital. But in many parts, weddings are still a lavish affair. Wedding season across most of India begins in November.

Pandey said the district administration does not intend to take any action against violators of social distancing norms. “Just last night we caught a DJ for playing at a wedding. DJ dance was happening, which is a violation of rules,” he said.

Last month, a man in the northern state of Rajasthan was fined INR 626,600 (US$ 8295.53) for inviting more than 50 people to his son’s wedding. In the north Indian city of Lucknow, a couple tested positive for COVID-19 within 10 days of their marriage ceremony. In Maharashtra’s Palghar district, a case was registered against a man who did not wait for his COVID-19 result before attending his wedding ceremony; he tested positive. The police in the north Indian city of Amethi stopped a wedding procession after the groom’s father tested positive.

Across the world, too, there have been cases of cultural and traditional practices leading to “super spreaders”, or unusually contagious individuals who spread the infection to at least two-three individuals. In Uruguay, half the country’s coronavirus cases in March were traced back to a fashion designer. The 57-year-old designer had returned from Spain with fever and attended a wedding. In the United States, at least 490 confirmed COVID-19 cases were suspected to be linked to a funeral in Georgia state. In Jordan, a wedding led to a cluster of cases and sealing off of the city.

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