A large November wedding in Washington State with over 300 people in attendance has been linked to ... [+]
A 300-person wedding on November 7th in Washington State has been linked with dozens of cases of Covid-19 and now the deaths of several residents in long-term care homes in the area.
In an announcement yesterday, the Grant County Health District reported that seven deaths from Covid-19 had occurred in three long-term care facilities where attendees of the super-spreader wedding had worked.
“Our investigations have determined that there were long term care staff who tested positive for COVID-19 who attended the large wedding in Ritzville, WA reported on November 16th,” - statement from Grant County Health District.
The residents ranged in age from in their 70s to in their 90s and four additional deaths in the care homes were currently awaiting certification by a coroner to confirm the cause of death as Covid-19. However the investigation is still very much ongoing, with Grant County Health District stopping short of being able to confirm a certain link between the infected staff members who had attended the wedding and the deaths of the long-term care home residents.
“Because staff in these facilities care for entire units, direct contact with associated patients is not known,” - 3rd December statement from Grant County Health District.
As of the last official update regarding the outbreak on November 17th, Grant County Health District confirmed that 40 cases of Covid-19 had been directly linked to the wedding and two potential secondary outbreaks were being investigated, including one at a school and the other at a long-term care center. Forbes Health has contacted Grant County Health District to request updated data as well as other neighboring counties which have also reported cases linked to the wedding, as reported originally by the Tri-CityHerald.
At the time of the wedding which had over 300 attendees, indoor ceremonies were limited to a maximum of 50 people. But the bride and groom clearly had little care for such restrictions, packing in over six times the allowed number of attendees in a private location. Shortly after the wedding outbreak was announced, Washington State governor Jay Inslee announced further restrictions, capping weddings at 30 people.
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The event has striking similarities to an August super-spreader wedding in Maine, which despite having only 55 people in attendance, was eventually linked to nearly 200 cases of Covid-19 and 8 deaths of people who didn’t even attend the ceremony. Again, outbreaks were caused by wedding attendees and secondary contacts of attendees going to work in environments with vulnerable people such as long-term care homes.
Evidence continues to mount that large weddings are high risk events for transmission of Covid-19, with collateral damage reaching far beyond the day of the celebrations. So, those toying with the idea of getting married as Covid-19 case numbers continue to break records in the U.S. might want to ask themselves if they want the happiest day of their lives forever associated with the deaths of innocent strangers.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information is received.
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