The Democratic Republic of Congo is the least vaccinated country against Covid-19 in the world and now a fourth wave of the coronavirus threatens to put greater pressure on its rickety health system than at any time during the pandemic, Reuters reports.

"We have experienced the three previous waves gradually, but in the fourth wave cases have jumped overnight," said Francois Kajingulu, the head of St Joseph Covid Treatment Centre. "On Monday we had five to six cases and on Saturday we went straight from 30 to 36," he said.

The increase is part of an Africa-wide surge that saw weekly Covid cases spike 83 per cent in mid-December, driven by the Delta and Omicron variants, although deaths remain low, the World Health Organisation said.

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