Three days after the Western Cape health department said it’s not a matter of “if, but “when” the new coronavirus, will be detected in South Africa, the country reported the first-ever case in the sub-Saharan region.

A statement put out by the National Institute of Communicable Disease Thursday, a man who is aged 38 tested positive after a visit to Italy.

The institute said that the unnamed man was one of 10 people who returned to South Africa from Italy on 1 March 2020.

According to the statement, the man experienced headache, fever symptoms, malaise, sore throat and cough on 3 March resulting in him visiting a private clinic where a nurse detected the virus.

The man and his doctor were both isolated on 3 March, while a tracer team has been sent out to identify some of the people the man could have been in contact with.

SA health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize told parliament’s portfolio committee on health on Wednesday this week that 13 public hospitals had been identified to treat the deadly coronavirus in South Africa.

Mkhize said the 13 public hospitals identified were around the country. He said clinicians had been trained to treat all infectious diseases.

He also told the committee that the department had ensured that all ports of entry had screening machines and thermal screening gadgets and they had ensured that immigration officers were equipped with masks.