DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Hospitals near Bangladesh’s border with India are crowded with patients struggling to breathe and worried relatives desperately trying to find oxygen cylinders. The highly contagious delta virus is causing a virus surge in border communities that were mostly spared last year as the pandemic sickened thousands in big cities. The border surge is pushing the virus deeper into Bangladesh at a time when its vaccine campaign is struggling. A stringent nationwide lockdown starts Thursday with military and riot police on the streets to enforce it. Scientists say that might be the only way to stop a disaster.
