Bosnia reported on Thursday its first confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus, in a man who recently travelled to Italy and his child.

"It is a middle-aged man who worked in Italy from where he returned in late February," Alen Seranic, the health minister of Bosnia's Serb-run half, told reporters.

The patient lives in the northwestern region of Banja Luka where he was hospitalised and is held in isolation, the minister said.

"His health condition is good, he has no difficulties and feels well," Seranic said.

Members of the man's family were also tested and a child tested positive, he said.

Bosnia is now the third country in the Balkans region to which the virus has spread.

Croatia has registered 10 cases, and North Macedonia one.

More than 90,000 people have been infected and around 3,200 have died worldwide from the virus, the vast majority in China where COVID-19 first emerged late last year.