Cairo University is shutting down its Faculty of Dentistry building in Qasr Al-Ainy for two weeks after the faculty dean tested positive for coronavirus, spokesman Mahmoud Alam El-Din said on Thursday.

Alam El-Din said dean Atef Shaker tested positive for coronavirus after he had exhibited symptoms.

The university spokesman said the closed comprises the administration offices as well as a number of clinics that were shut down when study was suspended.

Vice dean of the faculty Azza Ezz El-Arab said the faculty will continue to treat urgent cases in a separate building in the faculty.

The infection control committee traced 17 contacts among workers and members of the medical team, who have been placed in a 14-day quarantine and will be tested for the virus.

The committee has not yet specified how the dean had contracted the virus as he practises his job as a doctor, the university spokesman said.

He added that if any of the contacts tested positive for the virus they will be put in isolation in the French Kasr El-Ainy Hospital, which has been designated as an isolation hospital for the medical, teaching and administrative staff of Cairo University who contract the coronavirus.

Egypt has suspended study in universities and schools since 15 March in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The Supreme Council of Universities has cancelled exams at universities nationwide and replaced them with either a research paper or online exams, except for senior students whose exams were postponed until universities reopen.