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.

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