Three African countries are more at risk for the novel coronavirus from China: Egypt, Algeria and South Africa, according to an international study that has analyzed flight connections between the African continent and the Chinese provinces affected by the outbreak.

In other countries like Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Angola, Tanzania, Ghana and Kenya, the risk of importing the virus is inferior but fear of a quick spread is increasing.

The study, published by Lancet, was conducted by the team of Italy's Vittoria Colizza, director of research Inserm of unit 1136 of the Institute Pierre-Louis of epidemiology and public health of the Sorbonne University, in collaboration with the Free University of Brussels, the Oxford Martin Program on Pandemic Genomics and the University of California in Los Angeles.

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''This work - explained Colizza - enables to alert the most exposed countries to the need to prepare for the possibility of the virus' introduction''.

The researcher added that for several African countries ''with limited resources to manage the epidemic, there are significant risks not to have the organization and infrastructure to report, contain and treat the sick, which increases the risk of an epidemic in the continent''.