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Bangladesh imposes lockdown in Rohingya camps

Bangladesh has imposed a lockdown on a southern district, home to refugee camps housing more than a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing from Myanmar, to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Officials said no-one was allowed to enter or exit Cox's Bazar district.


Cox's Bazar district head Kamal Hossain announced the measures following a rise in cases in the country as a whole.

The number of infections in Bangladesh has doubled to more than 200 in the last five days, with 20 dead.

"Entry and exit from Cox's Bazar district is prohibited from now on," Mr Hossain said in a statement, adding that "stern action" would be taken against those who violated the order.

"Only emergency food supply and medical services can continue work in the camps by maintaining extreme caution," Refugee Commissioner Mahbub Alam Talukder said.

Anyone who had arrived in the country recently would have to go into quarantine before visiting the camps, he added.

No cases are confirmed in the camps, but aid agencies fear an outbreak could overwhelm poor medical facilities.

Most refugees arrived in the camps following a military crackdown in the neighbouring state in 2017.

Almost 750,000 crossed the border, joining hundreds of thousands of refugees already living there.

Last week Human Rights Watch warned that 350,000 people within Myanmar itself were especially vulnerable to coronavirus.

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Two minutes of brisk walking and better sleep could add a year to your life, study finds

Seven to eight hours sleep, 40 minutes of daily exercise and a healthy diet were linked to over nine extra healthy years of life

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Two minutes of brisk walking and better sleep could add a year to your life, study finds

Highlights

  • Just five minutes extra sleep, two minutes brisk walking and half serving of vegetables daily could add one year to lifespan.
  • Optimal combination of seven to eight hours sleep and 40 minutes daily exercise associated with nine additional years of life.
  • Five minutes more daily physical activity linked to 10 per cent reduction in deaths amongst majority of adults.

Small daily improvements in sleep, physical activity and diet could add years to people's lives, according to groundbreaking research offering a more achievable approach to healthy lifestyle changes.

A study published in The Lancet's eClinicalMedicine journal found that increasing sleep by five minutes, brisk walking by two minutes and consuming an additional half serving of vegetables per day could add a year of life for those with the poorest health habits.

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