(CNN) A prominent 30-year-old television journalist has died in Zimbabwe after contracting the new coronavirus infection, the first person to die in the country from the virus.

Zororo Makamba was one of the two people who tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday.

He was admitted to hospital in the capital Harare after exhibiting flu-like symptoms last Thursday, the health ministry said in a statement.

Makamba contracted the disease while he was in New York and was in isolation at Wilkins hospital, Harare's only isolation facility.

Zimbabwe's health workers wear protective suits during a training exercise.

A childhood friend of Makamba's told CNN he was suffering from a rare condition known as Myasthenia gravis, a chronic, neuromuscular illness, and had undergone surgery to remove a tumor from his chest last year.

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