Hundreds of couples wear masks to kiss at mass wedding amid coronavirus fears
More than 200 couples braved the global epidemic of coronavirus and wore facemasks to kiss at their mass wedding. The group was pictured locking lips through the blue surgical masks after a local mayor officiated the mass nuptials. The event is a post-Valentine’s Day tradition in the city of Bacolod, the northwest coast of Negros…
More than 200 couples braved the global epidemic of coronavirus and wore facemasks to kiss at their mass wedding.
The group was pictured locking lips through the blue surgical masks after a local mayor officiated the mass nuptials. The event is a post-Valentine’s Day tradition in the city of Bacolod, the northwest coast of Negros Island, Philippines.
The 220 pairs of newlyweds were asked to complete health declarations with a detailed list of travel histories in the past 14 days. They gathered in a great hall and awaited the mayor of Bacolod, Evelio Leonardia, to oversee the ceremony and name them husbands and wives.
John Paul, 39, one of the attendees who married his partner of seven years, said: “It feels different to kiss while wearing masks, but it was required. The place was jam-packed.” The Philippines has so far seen one coronavirus related death.
“If our families are strong, the city of Bacolod becomes strong too,” the mayor said at the ceremony.
Mass weddings are common in certain Southeast Asian countries and in South Korea, where 30,000 people have attended them this month. Attendees were given hand sanitizers and surgical masks on the way in.
The Philippines was the first country that recorded coronavirus death outside China. The case involved a 40-year-old Chinese national, who had developed severe pneumonia after being admitted to the hospital.
