Hospitals in Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa are "overwhelmed" by a rise in COVID-19 infections, President Felix Tshisekedi said on Saturday, as the country was hit by a third wave of the disease.

Like many African countries, Congo has officially registered relatively few cases. But the virus has killed a number of prominent politicians, and low vaccination rates have left the country vulnerable to more contagious variants.

Health officials recorded 254 confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, one of the highest daily totals since the pandemic began. In all, Congo has registered 35,000 cases and 830 deaths.

"I am going to take drastic measures to deal with this upsurge of the disease. We're talking about the Indian variant in particular," Tshisekedi told reporters, referring to the Delta variant, which was first discovered in India and is highly infectious.