Cautious 220 Philippine Couples Kiss While Wearing Their Face Mask

220 couples are reported to have exchanged vows and kisses in the central Philippines to launch their married lives wearing blue surgical masks amid a coronavirus outbreak.

Lovers and their relatives braved the virus, which has killed 2,236 people, to attend Thursday’s mass ceremony sponsored by the coastal city of Bacolod.

Mass weddings are also a distinguishing feature for a church in South Korea that prepared hand sanitizer and handed out surgical masks for some of the roughly 30,000 people who attended a ceremony this month.

The Philippines has recorded the first coronavirus death outside China, among three infections, all of Chinese nationals, but at least three dozen of its citizens based overseas have caught the virus.