Croatia's Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic waves. (File photo: AFP)

Croatia's Prime Minister on Tuesday announced his country's first confirmed case of the new coronavirus, the first in the Balkans region.

"It has been confirmed that the first patient was infected with the COVID-19 virus," Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at a press conference at a hospital in Zagreb. 

The patient is a young man "showing mild symptoms", he added.