A wedding live broadcast was held on Wednesday for 100 Chinese couples who fight on the frontlines of the battle against coronavirus, receiving wishes from witnesses, celebrity best men and bridesmaids, as well as many netizens.

The date May 5, 2020 in Chinese sounds like "aini aini woaini," meaning "love you, love you, I love you." On this loving day, 100 couples made up for the wedding they missed during the epidemic. Among them, one half or, in some cases, both halves of the 52 couples are police officers.

Li Lanjuan, 72-year-old virus-fighting heroine and academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Huang Xuhua, 94-year-old winner of China's top honor the Medal of the Republic and academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, served as the witness of the virtual wedding.

"Thank you for your contribution to fighting the epidemic. I'm moved by your story of devotion and mutual support. May you couples live together till old and grey and wish you a happy life!" said Huang.

Among the couples, the story of Chen Yin and Huang Qianrui are known to many.

On February 4, after working for 11 days in the quarantined ward to care for COVID-19 patients, nurse Chen met her boyfriend Huang for the first time at the hospital building's gate. They kissed across a glass door, and the photo of them kissing moved many.

Another couple's photo showing them sleeping also went viral. In the combined photo, nurse Pan Xin sat on the ground and fell asleep at the intervals of two operations outside an operating room; while policeman Li Tong ate a piece of bread but fell asleep on his office desk after two days of work with little sleep.

"You had only minutes of rest time, but left it for sleep that was deprived by busy work. After a short nap, you had to brace yourself up again for the work. It was very hard. Thank you," said wedding host Hua Shao.

Celebrity groomsmen and bridesmaids sent their wishes and songs via recorded videos, including singer Li Yuchun, actress Dilraba Dilmurat, musician and actress Ouyang Nana.

The wedding ended with couples exchanging their rings to music played by pianist Li Yundi.

The live broadcast drew 280 million views and 190,000 comments on popular social media platform Weibo as of Wednesday evening.

A netizen said, "Thank you to all newlyweds who contributed selflessly on the frontline against the coronavirus."

Another netizen said, "Wish you all to be surrounded by goodwill and love!"

(Cover image: A couple marries. /VCG)