Via El Watan.com: Coronavirus: two confirmed cases of infection Algeria. Excerpt from a Google translation:
Two coronavirus infections were confirmed in Algeria, said Saturday a statement from the Ministry of Health, Population and Hospital Reform.
These two Algerian men, aged 66 and 59, who stayed Saudi Arabia for performing Umrah, the source added. Both patients concerned were reported by health services wilaya of Tlemcen and Tipasa.
The first topic was presented the first signs of fever and difficulty breathing, as well as the second, which presented the first respiratory and digestive signs during their stay in Mecca, the ministry statement said, adding that they were supported after admission to health facilities in their respective wilaya.
Ministry of Health has strengthened since 27 April device monitoring and alerting established June 12, 2013 due to the evolution of the epidemiological situation the infection with this new virus in the Middle East, the source said. It is within this that these two infections were reported and confirmed by the national reference laboratory for the coronavirus of the Pasteur Institute of Algeria "strengthened and supported alert," the statement added.
Department continues to follow closely the evolution of the epidemiological situation and take appropriate all necessary measures that will be brought to the attention of the public, the source added.
The statement said further that at the current stage of epidemiological data evidence, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that "human transmission remains low."
It sounds as if the patients were already symptomatic before leaving Saudi Arabia; if so, I wonder about the Saudis' exit screening procedures—not to mention the Algerians' entry screening.
Tlemcen, Wikipedia has just advised me, is in the western coastal region of the country. Tipasa, meanwhile, is on the central coast. Both men presumably flew to Algiers before continuing on home. They would have been in contact with scores if not hundreds of people: in Mecca and Jeddah, aboard their flights, and in Houari Boumediene Airport, whose international terminal, Wikipedia says, can handle 6 million passengers a year.
Yet I haven't seen a single mention in the news reports about tracking the contacts of these two men. The Americans made a point of mentioning how they were following contacts of the Indiana case, and same was true of the Philippines when that male nurse came home after exposure to MERS in Abu Dhabi.
Perhaps we'll get such reassurances later, along with explanations that these two men didn't show a single symptom until they were all the way home. We'll see.
