Amid the health scare caused by COVID-19, couples tie the knot at a mass wedding in Alaminos City. (PHOTO FROM ALAMINOS CITY INFORMATION OFFICE)
ALAMINOS CITY—Thermal scanners and hand sanitizers were added to wedding decorations as 72 couples tied the knot here on Thursday (Feb. 13) amid fear of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
The brides, wearing white gowns and flower headdresses, and the grooms, in barong tagalog, were checked for fever by thermal scanners before they entered the mass wedding venue at the Leopoldo Sison Convention Center.
Hand sanitizers were also available at the venue, according to Lovely Milles, city civil registrar.
“No one had fever and one one was coughing,” she said.
The mass wedding was originally planned at the Hundred Islands National Park but was transferred to the convention center because of a gale warning.
Mayor Bryan Celeste, who officiated the wedding, challenged the couples to be keep the love they have, “as you will be my inspiration when it is my time to get married.”
While the Department of Health issued an advisory against large crowd gatherings as precaution against the spread of COVID-19, Milles said it was too late to cancel the mass wedding.
She said organizers tried to inform couples about the possibility of the event being cancelled but “most of them said they were all set for the wedding” and had already prepared receptions at home.