With No Social Distancing & Cap on Guests, Weddings Become Covid-19 Breeding Ground in Jamshedpur

In Jamshedpur, wedding functions appear to have become the breeding ground for Covid-19 infections, with people not adhering to social distancing norms and neglecting guidelines like wearing masks, using sanitisers, etc. Additionally, the organisers of the ceremonies are throwing caution to the wind by not capping the number of guests.

According to a report in The Times of India, in Prem Naga area, 10 members of a family tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The report, citing sources, said that they had travelled to Bihar’s Buxar on June 22 to attend the wedding ceremony of their son and had come back on July 4.

After the family patriarch tested positive for Covid-19, it was found that ten of them had contracted the disease. The bride, too, tested positive for Covid-19.

In another alarming case, a personnel at the Covid-19 check-post in Sonari also tested positive for coronavirus. When his travel history was looked into, it was found that he had travelled to Bihar to attend a wedding and had then returned to work.

It has also come to fore that people are not adhering to the guest limit at wedding ceremonies. At a marriage ceremony in Sonari west, over 200 guests were present, but when the officer-in-charge of Sonari police station, Renu Gupta, was intimated about it, she told ToI that it is the duty of the SDO to look after the number and not of the police.

This, however, is not a lone incident. Some days ago, Satarupa Mukherjee, a college student told Tiger Mobile cops about a wedding ceremony taking place in Janata Bustee locality, with over 300 guests in attendance. “Police love to turn a blind eye when informed about some incidents,” Mukherjee was quoted as saying by the publication.

Dr Sabyasachi Mukherjee, who has a private practice in the city, said that the government should revisit its decision to permit marriage ceremonies to take place and also called for a ban on parties.

Meanwhile, Jharkhand’s infection tally on Wednesday rose to 3,134, with seventy-eight people testing positive for Covid-19, a government bulletin said. Of the total 3,134 Covid-19 cases, 942 are active, it said.

Twenty-two people have died of Covid-19 since the outbreak of the viral infection on March 31, news agency PTI reported. The recovery rate in the state is 69.24 per cent while the mortality rate is 0.70 per cent, the bulletin added.