Stretched Senegalese Hospitals Overwhelmed by Third COVID Wave

IDRISSA Lo rushed back to Senegal from the United States when family members started falling sick with COVID-19 and dying.

On Wednesday, he mourned a fifth family member lost to the virus – one of nearly 150 Senegalese to die this month as a third wave sweeps through the capital Dakar, leaving its hospitals nearly overrun.

“The one I lost two hours ago is my really close cousin. He was young, he was like 40 years old,” said Lo, a U.S.-based transport worker, standing in the sun-baked yard of the hospital in Dakar’s Yoff neighbourhood.

“There is something going on – this is a real crisis.”  

Senegal, which until this month had recorded fewer than 44,000 cases and 1,166 deaths, has registered more than 15,000 cases and 139 deaths since the start of July, according to health ministry figures.

After comfortably weathering the first two waves of the virus, health