1,000 weddings postponed in SW China amid coronavirus outbreak

Wedding photo of Liu Shaoti and his fiancee. (Photo provided by Liu Shaoti)

Nearly 1,000 couples in Wuchuan County, Zunyi City in southwest China’s Guizhou province have proactively postponed their weddings in an effort to control the spread of the coronavirus, a move that has received high praise from the public.

Liu Shaoti, a doctor at a local health center, is among them. Amid growing concerns of person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus outbreak, Liu and his fiancee, who works as a nurse, decided to postpone their wedding.

"In order to effectively prevent and control the epidemic and reduce large gatherings, I decided to postpone the wedding after discussing with my fiancee," Liu said, adding that he shouldn’t put the health of his family and friends at risk.

After informing their wedding guests about the decision, Liu returned to work. He, together with his colleagues, made joint efforts to combat the epidemic, including checking the temperatures of local villagers and collecting information regarding visitors arriving from Wuhan that showed symptoms of fever or pneumonia stemming from unknown causes.

To raise public awareness regarding the novel coronavirus, cadres in Wuchuan County went from village to village to publicize knowledge pertaining to prevention as well as control of the epidemic in order to reduce large gatherings and furthermore to help avoid further spreading of the coronavirus.

Zhu Tao, a villager from Changjiao Village, Baicun Town, also postponed his wedding originally scheduled on the fourth day of the Chinese New Year after village cadres explained the spread and harm of the epidemic to him. Due to this, Zhu and his fiancee decided to reschedule their wedding after the coronavirus outbreak ends.

In the fight against the coronavirus outbreak, couples from Wuchuan County made a valuable contribution towards preventing the spread of the coronavirus by postponing their weddings.