CAIRO/ALGIERS

Algeria and Egypt reported their second deaths from the novel coronavirus late Thursday.

The Algerian Health Ministry said in a statement that the victim was 55 years old.

It added that the number of cases in the country had risen to 26.

Egypt’s Health Ministry meanwhile said that a 60-year-old woman suffering from acute pneumonia had died from the coronavirus.

The number of confirmed cases in Egypt has risen to 80, the ministry added.

The novel coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, was first detected in Wuhan, China last December and has spread to at least 114 countries.

The global death toll is now over 4,900, with more than 134,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak "a pandemic."

*Writing by Gozde Bayar