Albania reported its first confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, a man who returned from Italy late last month and his father, the health ministry said.

“A 54-year-old man and his 28-year-old son who returned by car from Florence tested positive for COVID-19,” a ministry statement said.

The two are hospitalised in the capital Tirana and their health condition is stable, it said.

Albania is the fifth Western Balkans country where the virus has spread after Croatia, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Serbia where 19 people have been infected.

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More than half are in Croatia.

Roughly 110,00 people have been infected worldwide and nearly 3,800 have died from the virus, the vast majority in China where it first emerged late last year.

Italy is now the second-worst affected country in the world with more than 7,300 infected people and 366 deaths.

In another news, a German tourist who was being treated for coronavirus in Egypt is the first fatality to be recorded in Africa because of the outbreak.

The 60-year-old had arrived in Egypt a week ago and complained of a fever. He was taken to a hospital in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada for treatment where he was diagnosed with coronavirus.

AFP news agency reports that his breathing was affected by “acute pneumonia”. The patient died after refusing to be transferred to an isolation ward.

[AFP]

Vanguard News Nigeria.