South Africa's confirmed coronavirus cases have doubled in two weeks to 750,000 while health officials in India have registered the country's biggest daily spike as its total passed 800,000.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Inequality concerns are growing as health workers seek better protection while some among the rich are hoarding equipment at home.
Globally more than 12 million people have been infected by the virus, according to data compiled by the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.
More than 500,000 have died, although shortages of testing materials and poor data collection in some countries mean the true numbers are unknown.
Some of the worst-affected countries are among the world's most unequal.
South Africa leads them all, with the pandemic exposing the gap in care.
In Johannesburg at South Africa's epicentre, badly-needed oxygen concentrators, which help people with COVID-19 breathe, are hard to find as private businesses and individuals are buying them up, a public health specialist volunteering at a field hospital said.
Meanwhile, South Africa's struggling public hospitals are short on medical oxygen - and they are now seeing a higher proportion of deaths than in private ones, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases says.
South Africa has more than 250,000 confirmed cases, including more than 3800 deaths.
To complicate matters, the country's struggling power utility has announced new electricity cuts in the dead of winter as a cold front brings freezing weather.
Many of the urban poor live in shacks of scrap metal and wood.
And in Kenya, some have been outraged by a local newspaper report citing sources as saying several governors have installed intensive care unit equipment in their homes.
The country lost its first doctor to COVID-19 this week.
"The welfare, occupational safety & health of frontline workers is a non-negotiable minimum!!" the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union tweeted after her death.
On Saturday, the union and other medical groups called on President Uhuru Kenyatta to implement a promised compensation package to ease the "anxiety and fear that has now gripped health care workers".
Many parts of the world are now struggling with trying to reopen their economies and facing a fresh wave of infections.
In India, which reported a new daily high of 27,114 cases on Saturday, nearly a dozen states have imposed a partial lockdown in high-risk areas.
A surge in infections resulted in cases jumping from 600,000 to more than 800,000 in nine days.
India's total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases is at 820,916.
Infected people are packing India's public hospitals as many are unable to afford private ones that generally uphold higher standards of care.
Australian Associated Press