As daily cases of COVID-19 in South Africa reach 20,000, surpassing levels seen during the first wave of the pandemic, Steve Biko hospital in Pretoria is so full that staff are giving some patients oxygen in beds wheeled out into the parking lot.
Hospitals in coronavirus hotspots across Africa's most industrialized nation are full to capacity, and face a shortage of beds, dwindling supplies of oxygen and a lack of intensive care units.
A Reuters cameraman visited the government-run Steve Biko Academic Hospital in the capital city on Monday, and saw a patient receiving oxygen on the tarmac outside the entrance to the emergency department.
Nearby, hospital staff were spraying down beds with sanitiser to prepare for more patients. The hospital has erected large tents where some patients receive emergency treatment before being moved to designated wards.