Bangladesh Locks Down As Daily COVID Cases Quintuple

https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/07/01/ [login to see] /bangladesh-locks-down-as-daily-covid-cases-quintuple
The coronavirus has silenced even Dhaka's cacophony.

The notoriously traffic-clogged streets of Bangladesh's capital were eerily empty Thursday, save for soldiers on patrol on the first day of a national lockdown imposed after daily tallies of new coronavirus infections nearly quintupled over the past month.

Fueled by the delta variant first detected in neighboring India, this is Bangladesh's third COVID-19 wave. It has hit fast on the heels of a springtime second wave, and during a shortage in vaccine doses. In some poorer countries with low vaccination rates, like Bangladesh, coronavirus cases are surging, even as Western nations open up.

"There will be a fourth wave, and there will be a fifth wave, before we can vaccinate everyone — while rich countries are lifting lockdowns and even giving people booster doses," says Senjuti Saha, a Dhaka-based microbiologist and public health activist at the Child Health Research Foundation. She herself has been unable to get vaccinated, despite being classified as an essential health worker. "We will be stuck in this vicious cycle — more infections, more mutations, more variants — and we are scared."