World Health Organization (WHO) officials issued stern warnings to nations planning to relax COVID-19 restrictions as global deaths from the virus topped 4 million and the more virulent delta variant was spotted in more than 100 countries, including those with high vaccination rates.

In a statement on Thursday, Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa,  reportedly said that the limited supply of oxygen and manpower in the already overwhelmed critical care facilities has fuelled the fatalities in the continent.  "Deaths have climbed steeply for the past five weeks. This is a clear warning sign that hospitals in the most impacted countries are reaching a breaking point," Moeti said.

She said that the dire shortage of health workers, equipment and infrastructure to provide emergency care to critically ill Covid patients has undermined efforts to minimise fatalities in Africa. According to Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the continent's total caseload rose to 6,072,120, while the fatalities stood at 154,602. Moeti said that Namibia, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia accounted for 83 percent of new deaths recorded in the past week adding that the continent's case fatality rate stood at 2.6 percent against the global average of 2.2 percent.

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