Nearly half of 83 people who attended Ohio wedding test positive for coronavirus

Ohio couple Anthony and Mikayla Bishop contracted coronavirus as well and believe the dance floor may have been a super spreader

An Ohio couple were stunned when more than a third of their wedding guests contracted the coronavirus.

The Cincinnati couple celebrated their big day on Halloween but had to cut their honeymoon short when they started showing symptoms of the virus and began receiving alarming phone calls about other family members that were showing symptoms.

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“Weddings are definitely scary right now. I didn’t think that almost half of our wedding guests were gonna get sick,” said newlywed Mikayla Bishop to WLWT News. “You’re in the moment. You’re having fun. You don’t think about COVID anymore.”

Ohio Anthony and Mikayla Bishop thegrio.com
Anthony and Mikayla Bishop (Credit: screenshot)

They had no choice but to think of the virus when 32 of their 83 guests tested positive including themselves and their grandparents.

The couple did offer their guests masks and hand sanitizer souvenirs but the bride says when the doors opened for her to walk down the aisle, she was shocked.

“My big moment honestly was right when the ceremony started and the doors opened and both my parents walked me down the aisle. The first thing I see is I see everyone’s face. And that’s when I realized wow. Nobody’s wearing a mask,” said Bishop. “I’m walking down the aisle. We can’t do anything now.”

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She says guests really threw precautions to the wind at the reception.

“That’s what was maybe the super spreader is the dance floor,” said Bishop. “Everybody’s in each other’s face and there’s no masks.”

Her husband Anthony Bishop added, “When I saw everyone not wearing masks I was just like, ‘Oh, well I guess we’re just gonna kinda go with it I guess.'”

On their honeymoon at a cabin in North Carolina, the couple began to feel their own symptoms. Anthony could not taste or smell and she could barely get off the couch. But despite their own health issues, their minds are on their grandparents.

“What’s crazy is that our grandparents were the only ones that wore a mask the whole time. They actually wore their mask except for when they were eating their dinner,” Bishop said.

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