Coronavirus (COVID-19) has come to establish presence in Africa as the Algerian authorities on Tuesday announced the country’s first case.

The patient is identified as an Italian citizen who arrived in the country on February 17.

“One case was confirmed positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), out of two suspected cases (both) of Italian nationality,” the North African country’s health ministry is quoted by media reports.

The infected person is said to have been quarantined.

The health ministry assured that it had reinforced its monitoring and surveillance systems at all points of entry into the country.

Egypt also, on February 14, announced its first case of the deadly disease which broke out in the Wuhan city of China in December 2019, but later announced the patient tested negative.