The church where the wedding was celebrated in Maine.

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JOSEPH PREZIOSO / AFP

Seven dead and at least 177 people infected after a marriage: the small American state of Maine, close to Canada, experienced an "ultra-propagating" event of Covid-19, which reminded a region of the dangers of the virus to a region which thought that the worst of the epidemic was behind her.

The wedding, attended by 65 people - violating the official limit of 50 people maximum - dates back to August 7, with first a ceremony in a Baptist church and then a reception at the "Big Moose Inn", two places near the picturesque small town of Millinocket (4,000 inhabitants).

Ten days later, 24 people associated with this event had tested positive for Covid-19, and the Maine Center for Disease Control (CDC) opened an investigation.

On Thursday, the director of the Center, Nirav Shah, provided a new toll: at least 177 people infected and seven people dead - of whom "none were physically present" at the wedding, he said.

"Contact tracers" have linked several outbreaks of coronavirus across Maine to the marriage: more than 80 cases in a prison 370 km away, one of the guardians of which was at the wedding, 10 probable cases in a Baptist church in the same area, and 39 cases and six deaths at a retirement home 160 km from Millinocket.

Brutal recall

For this municipality and its region, which had relaxed the rules of distancing introduced at the start of the epidemic and believed that the virus belonged to the past, the recall was brutal.

"When we learned what had happened, everyone went back into confinement (...) We closed everything in town," said Cody McEwen, president of the city council.

Some residents were clearly upset with the organizers of the event, starting with the hostel whose license has been temporarily suspended.

The governor of Maine, Janet Mills, warned Thursday the 1.3 million inhabitants of this small very rural state, where the rate of contamination is currently limited to 0.6%.

Such outbreaks "threaten to ruin the progress made" in the face of the epidemic, she stressed.

“The Covid-19 is not on the other side of the fence, it is in our gardens.

Since the start of the epidemic, a series of super-propagating events, causing an exponential number of cases, have been recorded around the world.

The first identified in the United States were a biotech company conference in Boston in February, attended by some 175 people, and a funeral in Georgia where more than 100 people contracted the virus.

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