Senegalese health services are now stretched dangerously thin after comfortably weathering the first two waves of the coronavirus, according to a hospital official.

"Patients, particularly young ones, are arriving in respiratory distress," said Dr Khardiata Diallo, head of infectious disease at Fann Hospital in Dakar, her voice cracking with exhaustion.

"We've never had this number of cases, deaths and severe cases. Frankly, this third wave threatens to drown us."

Many infections outside clinics were going undiagnosed, while post mortems were not routine, she said. "The situation is much more serious. What we see here is only the tip of the iceberg."

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