Egypt's embassy in Beijing evacuated on Wednesday three Egyptians who were stuck in China's Hubei province, the Egyptian foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday, adding that the Egyptian nationals were evacuated on an Emirati plane.

The three citizens had not joined a group of Egyptians who were evacuated from Hubei on 2 February due to China’s heavy travel restrictions to control the outbreak of the coronavirus in the province.

Egypt's ambassador to China Mohamed El-Badry said in the statement that the foreign ministries of Egypt and the UAE are coordinating the evacuation of the Egyptian citizens with their embassies in China.

The Emirati government is using a special jet to evacuate from China 205 people from different Arab countries including Sudan and Egypt. The passengers will be housed in an Emirati quarantine hospital for at least two weeks.

According to the Egyptian embassy in Abu Dhabi, the three Egyptians are in good health and will remain at the Emirati hospital for no more than 25 days if they show no signs of infection.

According to the World Health Organization's daily report on the coronavirus situation, 67,332 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in Hubei and the death toll in the Chinese province has reached 2,871 since the outbreak.

Three Egyptians contract coronavirus in Italy

In a separate statement on Thursday, the foreign ministry said that the number of coronavirus cases amongst Egyptian nationals in Italy has risen to three, adding that Egyptian authorities in the northern city of Milan are following their condition.

The first case, announced earlier this week, was treated at a hospital in Milan and then discharged to continue his treatment in home quarantine after his health improved and he was deemed stable.

Two other cases, an Egyptian couple who live in the city of Voghera, were confirmed after the man contacted the Egyptian consulate through its Facebook page and informed its staff that he and his wife were suffering from the coronavirus.

The man is receiving treatment at hospital because he is suffering from some health problems, while the woman is being treated at home and both are in "stable condition".

There are 560,000 Egyptians living in Italy, according to a 2017 census by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS).

Italy is considered the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe.