Guests infected with Covid-19 at Bluff wedding cluster not blaming anyone

April 10, 2020

The wedding venue may have followed the Ministry of Health guidelines, but 87 people associated with it have now got the virus.

Guests at a Bluff wedding who have become one of the largest Covid-19 clusters in the country say it’s a day they’ll never forget.

While the wedding venue, Oyster Cove restaurant and bar, may have followed the Ministry of Health guidelines, 87 people associated with the event have since been infected with the virus.

It comes after 70 people joined a Southland couple to celebrate their wedding on Saturday, March 21 - just days before the nationwide lockdown began at midnight on March 25.

“We all felt safe, we all went to the wedding and we all had a fantastic time and no one was sick at the wedding - you gotta remember, no one felt sick,” wedding guest Murray Culbert told 1 NEWS.

Days later, they discovered one of the guests tested positive for coronavirus.

Mr Culbert, who attended the event with his wife Linda, fell ill one week after the event.

“At the time, because I didn’t feel too unwell. As it got on I started to get a sore throat and it changed as well,” he said.

“The scariest part was my wife and I tested positive and my daughter was fairly stressed out ‘cause we tried to isolate her and she read what the virus could do to people."

"I think after she tested positive, even though it was scary for her as well, it was a little more relaxed, as in we could be together and try and fight this together."

The bride and groom are among those sick after the 70-person wedding.

Eighty-five others connected to the Bluff wedding are also fighting the illness, including wedding guest Janeen Greer-Pringle.

“Bad headaches, sore throat, bad cough, very, very, very tired. You didn’t need to do much. I’d usually go for a run every day but it was enough effort, basically, to get up and go to the toilet,” Ms Greer-Pringle said.

“But interestingly, there are other family members who've actually had little or no symptoms at all.”

The Invercargill Mayor says it’s a bit unfair to call it a Bluff cluster when guests were from out of town.

Health officials say the cluster could have been significantly higher had a nationwide lockdown not been imposed.

“We're seeing quite a number of clusters, not just within New Zealand, but it's been observed across the world, that social occasions act as a very efficient vector for spread of disease," Director of Public Health Dr Caroline McElnay said.

While it has since been confirmed that there was an overseas travel link, the guests aren’t interested in placing blame, but instead thanking the couple for a fun and memorable wedding.

“Oh, it was beautiful. It was an absolutely lovely wedding,” Ms Greer-Pringle said. “It was a lovely time.”

“No one blames them - we don’t. I’ll remember the wedding as a good, fun time, try not to remember for the wrong reasons ‘cause we all had a great time, we all chose to go, it was a fantastic wedding,” Mr Culbert added.

SHARE ME

More Stories