Health crisis as Covid-19 sweeps EA, taking lives in the midst of oxygen shortage

Covid-19 testing.

Residents at a makeshift Covid-19 testing unit at the Mulago Hospital in Uganda. PHOTO | MORGAN MBABAZI

East Africa is in the throes of a public health crisis as its healthcare systems sag under the weight of a rapid third wave of Covid-19, largely blamed on the deadly Delta strain.

But health authorities have identified at least five strains of the coronavirus in the region.