Africa is one of only two continents with no confirmed cases of coronavirus however experts have warned that it may not be long before the first case is confirmed, given its increasingly close ties to China. At least 565 people have died with more than 28,000 confirmed cases around the world, most of them in China. Last week the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak a global health emergency - largely because of fears that poorer countries might not be able to cope with an outbreak. "The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries. Our greatest concern is the potential for the virus to spread to countries with weaker health systems," said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Ethiopia. The health systems in many African countries are already struggling with the existing workload, so can they deal with another outbreak of a highly infectious disease? Michael Yao, WHO's head of emergency operations in Africa, notes that some countries on the continent "have the minimum to start with - they're not starting from scratch". "We know how fragile the health system is on the African continent and these systems are already overwhelmed by many ongoing disease outbreaks, so for us it is critical to detect earlier so that we can prevent the spread."