UPDATE 1-Algeria flight suspension or protest bar 'not on agenda' over coronavirus

Algeria is not planning to ban public protests or suspend flights to Italy after the country's first case of the coronavirus was identified in an Italian man, a health ministry official said on Wednesday.

Speaking at a news conference in Algiers, Djamel Fouar, director of prevention and control of communicable diseases, said authorities were monitoring everyone who had been in touch with the 61-year-old patient. The man is from Milan in northern Italy, where an outbreak has been centred, and travelled through Algiers to Ouargla in southern Algeria which is a centre for the oil and gas industry.

Asked about a possible suspension of flights or a bar on the mass weekly protests that have rocked Algeria for more than a year, Fouar said such measures were "not on the agenda". However, he said authorities would reinforce controls on planes arriving in Algeria, particularly those coming from Italy.