Egypt's health minister has returned to Cairo after six-day visit to China to show solidarity to the country at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, a statement by the ministry read.

Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said minister Hala Zayed and her accompanying delegation were subject to a range of preventative measures on arrival at Cairo International Airport, including having their temperatures measured and respiratory symptoms assessed.

Samples were also taken from the delegation to be lab-tested for the virus.

Megahed said the team’s condition would be followed up on for a period of 14 days, the disease’s incubation period.

Zayed travelled to China on Sunday upon the directive of President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, to show solidarity with the Chinese people.

China has provided Egypt with 1,000 thermal detectors along with the updated version of the technical documents illustrating the precautionary measures taken against the epidemic, which will be of great use to contain the virus’ spread, Zayed noted last week.

In the past weeks, Egypt had upped preventive measures at all entry points nationwide to combat a global outbreak of the disease.

It had detected three cases of coronavirus since the outbreak last December, with the latest case detected on Thursday of an Egyptian coming from abroad.

The first two cases were foreigners, also recent travellers, one of whom has since recovered.

The epidemic has killed over 3,000 people worldwide, with the vast majority in mainland China.

It has infected near 100,000 globally, with infections hitting every continent except Antarctica.