Abu Dhabi: Married life got off to an unexpected start for a pair of newlyweds in Egypt when police showed up at the party.
They had received a tip-off that the wedding of the sister of Egyptian actor and singer Mohamed Ramadan was happening in Sheikh Zayed city, south Cairo, despite a nationwide ban on all public gatherings because of coronavirus.
Ramadan, who recently celebrated getting 12m followers on Instagram, all wedding guests and the newlyweds themselves were promptly arrested and taken to a police station, for failing to abide by COVID-19 precautionary measures.
The police questioned them and the groom, Hossam Hamed, acknowledged that the wedding ceremony was held inside his villa, and was limited to the families of the newlyweds only, taking into account the precautionary procedures, which was accepted by the investigation authorities, and accordingly freed them from the Sheikh Zayed police station.
Egypt has been implementing general precautionary measures since mid-March, which included the closure of schools, universities, sports clubs, cafes and places of large gatherings, in addition to imposing a partial curfew, starting from 8pm to 6am, to stem the spread of coronavirus in the country.
Through social media, Ramadan faced several criticisms from prominent and media figures about his family’s arranging for his sister’s wedding, while Egypt faced a noticeable increase in the daily tally of infections and deaths.
Egypt’s Health Ministry reported Sunday its highest-ever number of infections and deaths from the coronavirus.
The ministry said there were 46 deaths in the last 24 hours, jumping from 34 the previous day. There were also 1,536 confirmed cases.
Egypt, a country of 100 million people, has seen a surge in infections in the past week. It has the highest announced deaths from COVID-19 in the Arab World, and the third in the Middle East behind Iran and Turkey.
Sunday’s figures have taken the tally in the Arab World’s most populous country to 24,985 confirmed cases and 959 deaths. The ministry says over 6,000 patients were discharged from quarantine after their recovery.
