Turkmenistan holds mass exercises, defies coronavirus concerns

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan: Authoritarian Turkmenistan gathered thousands of citizens for mass exercise events to mark World Health Day, state media said, ignoring the global trend for social distancing to fight the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Central Asian country, along with North Korea, is one of a handful of territories which claim they have no cases of the virus which is sweeping across the globe. A state television broadcast late on Tuesday showed hundreds of people wearing identical coloured tracksuits cycling in close formation on a cold, damp day in the capital Ashgabat. Another sequence showed state employees including medical staff doing stretches inside and outside government buildings.

State media said 7,000 citizens participated in cycling events across the gas-rich ex-Soviet country to celebrate the date, which has been marked internationally since 1950.