AFP

Nigerian officials have been screening passengers arriving at the country's main airports

The first case of the coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa has been confirmed in Nigeria.

The patient is an Italian citizen who works in Nigeria and flew into the commercial city of Lagos from Milan on 25 February.

Authorities say he is stable with no serious symptoms and is being treated at a hospital in the city.

Elsewhere on the continent, Algeria and Egypt have also confirmed cases of the disease.

The World Health Organization had warned that Africa's "fragile health systems" meant the threat posed by the virus "is considerable".

Globally, more than 80,000 people in nearly 50 countries have been infected. Nearly 2,800 have died, the majority in China's Hubei province.

Nigerian authorities say the Italian patient - who had flown in from Milan, a city badly hit by the coronavirus outbreak - is clinically stable, with no serious symptoms, and is being managed at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba, Lagos.

"We have already started working to identify all the contacts of the patient, since he entered Nigeria," the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control said in a statement.