South Africa confirms first case of novel coronavirus

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South Africa confirmed its first coronavirus case after a 38-year-old man who traveled to Italy tested positive, Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said.

A tracer team has been sent to South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province along with epidemiologists and clinicians from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, Mkhize said in a statement on Thursday.

The infected South African, who was part of a group of 10 people who traveled to Italy, returned home on March 1, went into self-isolation on March 3 and is now being treated in the hospital.

It has taken more than two months for the virus to reach South African from mainland China, where it originated.