US: New York governor slams secret wedding as 'illegal'

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - New York Governor Andrew Cuomo criticized a Hasidic synagogue for holding a massive secret wedding, calling it "illegal".

"If that happened, it was a blatant disregard of the law," Cuomo told reporters on Sunday about the wedding that took place on Nov. 8 in Brooklyn borough of New York City.

"It was also disrespectful to the people of New York ... It is illegal and the city should do a robust investigation," he added.

The wedding at Yetev Lev temple in Williamsburg district was attended by some 7,000 people who were not wearing any facemasks against COVID-19, but they were singing and dancing on their seats in closed space, according to a YouTube video.

"We went through this with weddings. We literally stopped a wedding couple of nights before, which was gonna be a very large wedding," Cuomo said.

Despite quarantine measures and other restrictions, the US still leads the world in the number of coronavirus cases and deaths, which were at 12.2 million and almost 257,000, respectively.

The state of New York has the highest COVID-19 deaths with 34,319, followed by Texas with 21,013 and California at 18,727, according to Johns Hopkins University on Monday.