The Tunisian government on Monday confirmed the country’s first case of the coronavirus.
The Minister of Health, Abdelatif el-Maki, told a press conference that the patient was a Tunisian man.
Tunisia becomes the fifth country in Africa to confirm a case of the coronavirus after Egypt, Algeria, Nigeria and Senegal.
The announcement comes after Algeria confirmed two new cases of coronavirus infections, a woman and her daughter aged 53 and 24 years respectively.
Senegal also registered its first confirmed case of the coronavirus, a French citizen who has since been placed under observation.
The coronavirus, first reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, has so far spread to more than 60 countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently raised its assessment of the risk of the disease spreading to “very high”.
