Bangladesh has imposed a “complete lockdown” in Cox's Bazar district — home to over a million Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar — to halt the spread of coronavirus, AFP reported quoting officials.

The area “will be put under complete lockdown — no entry, no exit — until the situation improves,” the directive said. Police and soldiers set up roadblocks on the main roads of the district, home to 3.4 million people including the Rohingya refugees, and were conducting patrols inside and around the camps on Thursday.

Experts have warned that the disease could spread quickly through the cramped, sewage-soaked alleys where the persecuted Muslim minority are housed in canvas and bamboo shacks.