Bangladesh locks down as infections in Europe rise again

DHAKA (AFP): Bangladesh’s 168 million people on Thursday began a strict coronavirus lockdown while Indonesia announced emergency curbs as infections surged across parts of the Asia-Pacific.

A European Union-wide coronavirus travel certificate was also set to come into force on Thursday, but concerns persisted about a resurgence of the disease as the World Health Organization said cases in the continent were up after 10 weeks of decline. Many outbreaks have been blamed on the more infectious Delta variant of the virus, which has pushed COVID-19 deaths in Russia to record levels and sparked an “alarming and dangerous” case surge in Bangladesh.

The streets of the South Asian nation were empty on Thursday, patrolled by the army and the police, with people confined to their homes except for emergencies and to buy essentials.

The new variants – such as Delta, the most contagious to date – have fuelled outbreaks around the world even as mass vaccination programs are launched in many countries.

More than 180 million infections and close to four million COVID-19 deaths have been recorded since the pandemic began.