The ongoing COVID-19 situation, declared as pandemic on 11 March 2020 by WHO, has adversely affected people's lives around the globe since its beginning at Wuhan, China, in December 2019. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national public health organization of the US, both type 1 or type 2 diabetes mellitus are risk factors for COVID-19. In Southeast Asia (SEA), around 90 million people have been reported to suffer from diabetes mellitus, which is

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... ed by deregulated use of blood glucose by the body 1 . The Mayo Clinic, a non-profit medical center in the US, suggested that regular exercise, weight loss, healthy eating, and anti-diabetic medication or insulin, help to manage the disease. The lockdown situation due to COVID-19 has compelled people around the globe to stay at home, preventing them from going to parks or a gym. Most people in the lowermiddle-income countries (LMIC) in SEA, like Bangladesh or India, which are densely populated, cannot afford spacious living places due to their poor financial state and restricted movement in the city areas 2 . In general, most diabetes patients in these countries could not go outside their homes for exercise or walking during lockdown due to movement restrictions, and most of them have had to stay in confined accommodation. Moreover, a gym at home is unavailable for most people living in LMICs. These barriers to physical exercise may have prompted uncontrolled glycemic situation throughout the pandemic period. A study in India reported HbA1c increased by 2.26% from baseline after 30 days of lockdown and 3.68% after 45 days of lockdown 3 . According to research, an increase of 0.51% in the HbA1c level was found in an Indian studied