COVID-19 cases in Egypt have hit 150, according to Egyptian Minister of Information Osama Heikal.
Heikal announced the new figures on Monday as more African countries confirmed cases of the disease.
Africa now has more than 380 cases, with Egypt topping the statistics.
The latest countries in the continent to have reported cases include Tanzania, Liberia and Benin.
Heikal also confirmed a government directive to suspend international flights into Egypt beginning Thursday 18 March, 2020.
He urged Egyptians to remain vigilant and follow health directives in order to avoid contracting the disease.
Earlier, President Abdel-Fattal el-Sisi ordered schools and universities to shut down in a bid to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The COVID-19 outbreak was first reported in the city of Wuhan, central China’s Hubei Province, in December 2019. Experts have attributed the outbreak to a novel coronavirus that has since spread across China and abroad with confirmed cases exceeding 153,000 globally.
