COVID19 never happened in Cobra Kai?

Looking at some of the summaries of Cobra Kai and the timelines, it says that storyline goes from 2018 - May 2020, with the Sekai Taikai taking place in May 2020. Spring/summer 2020 was when the lockdowns just started, so how did they end up avoiding it with the Sekai Taikai? Did they conveniently just ignore COVID 19 completely in their universe? I think they should have kept it for the sake of realness, I think there could've been a lot more plotlines with having quarantine/masking a part of Cobra Kai since that time in 2020 was a once in a generation pandemic event.