TOKYO (Reuters) -The Olympic teams of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan paraded mostly maskless through Tokyo's National Stadium at Friday's Games opening ceremony, marking an awkward contrast with other national teams who covered their faces in line with COVID-19 protocols. "My kids pointed out that this country forgot their masks," laughed one Japanese user called Panda Panda, while another person questioned whether central Asian countries missed the memo about mask wearing. A third, Adma Steiner, joked that Turkmenistan, a third Central Asian and former Soviet republic, had "really walked out and stabbed Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in the back by actually wearing masks". Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov was on Friday quoted by domestic press agency AKIpress as saying COVID-19 vaccinations were voluntary. (Reporting by John Stonestreet and Mari Saito in Tokyo; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Toby Davis)

Source: The Star July 23, 2021 13:28 UTC