Couple attends own wedding via video call amid coronavirus scare

A bride and groom from Singapore who flew in from China attended their wedding reception via livestream. INQUIRER.net stock photo

A Singapore couple who recently had a trip to China voluntarily isolated themselves from their own wedding to allay their guests’ fear of the COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Instead, couple Joseph Yew and Kang Ting attended the reception at M Hotel in Singapore via livestream on Feb. 2, as per Shin Min Daily News via Asia One on Feb. 4.

The couple reportedly spent the Chinese New Year with the bride’s family in Hunan, a province beside Hubei, where Wuhan – the epicenter of the global novel coronavirus outbreak – is located.

They returned to Singapore just a few days before their wedding and went into voluntary isolation, but decided to push through with the wedding after the hotel did not allow them to postpone it, as per report.

While their guests were celebrating and dining at M Hotel’s banquet hall, the couple were livestreaming from a suite at the same hotel. The hotel noted that the room was cleaned and sanitized afterward.

The couple, dressed in their respective wedding attires, interacted with guests, gave their speeches and popped champagne all through a screen. Despite not being at the banquet physically, the groom said that it was a “happy occasion.”

Yew’s sister was the only relative who was able to attend the actual reception, as the groom’s parents were also in isolation since they live together with the couple.

Ting’s parents, meanwhile, were also not able to attend due to the travel restrictions imposed by the Singaporean government. The restriction temporarily bars any visitor that has traveled to mainland China in the past two weeks from entering Singapore.

Despite the couple’s ingenious decision, however, some guests still opted to skip the wedding, rendering only 11 tables out of 19 tables filled.

“We know many of our guests were worried. We had discussed with the hotel on postponing the banquet but could not reach an agreement. To let our guests have peace of mind, we made this decision,” the groom was quoted as saying.

The disease, recently named by the World Health Organization as COVID-19, has so far killed over 1,000 people and infected more than 42,000 worldwide. The WHO has declared the outbreak as a global health emergency. Ian Biong/NVG

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