Sudanese authorities said Wednesday they are monitoring two possible cases of coronavirus.

Health minister Akram Ali Al-Tom told reporters in Khartoum that two suspected cases of coronavirus have entered the country through Egypt and Ethiopia.

“We received two suspected cases came from China through Cairo and Addis Ababa … we want to stress here that the two cases haven’t been confirmed yet but we take the samples and then send them abroad with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO) to test it,” he said after a meeting of the council of ministers.

The minister further said one of the cases is currently in Al-Gezira state and the other in the capital Khartoum. He pointed out that they are taking precautionary measures to protect the country from the disease.

“We are on high precautions with the different authorities including the sea, land and airports as well as the ministries of interior, migration and others,” he explained.

The virus was first detected in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year.  It has so far killed at least 170 people and infected some 7,815 others globally, the vast majority of them in China.