Stretched Senegalese hospitals overwhelmed by third COVID wave

DAKAR: 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.