FREETOWN: Sierra Leone has reported its first COVID-19 case to become the latest African country to record its first case of the new coronavirus.

In a televised press conference on Tuesday, President Julius Maada Bio said a patient is a 37-year-old man who arrived in the country from France on March 16.

The man had been quarantined on arrival in the West African state, Bio said.

The president also said authorities were aggressively tracing people who may have come into contact with the infected patient and urged people to report anyone with coronavirus symptoms to the authorities, TV360 Nigeria reported.

Sierra Leone had been one of the few countries in Africa to have reported zero cases, despite neighboring Guinea and Liberia having detected infections.

The remaining African countries without any reported cases of the infection are South Sudan, Burundi, Sao Tome and Principe, Malawi, Lesotho and Comoros.