Zimbabwe's vice president Constantino Chiwenga is in China undergoing medical exams, an official said Tuesday.

Presidential spokesman George Charamba told AFP Chiwenga, a former army general who led President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rise to power following a brief military takeover in 2017, "flew back to China over the weekend for his medical checkup".

Chiwenga spent four months undergoing treatment in China last year and returned home in November.

Charamba said Chiwenga had suffered from fatigue in recent days explaining his absence from a function attended by top government officials at Mnangagwa's farm.

"He was feeling a bit indisposed but he was quite cheerful when he left for China on Sunday," he said.

His return to China comes as the Asian nation is battling to contain the coronavirus which surfaced there last December and became a pandemic.

Mnangagwa last week ordered a ban on foreign trips by government officials to avoid importing the pathogen.

Chiwenga, 64, was admitted to a South African hospital last year for a constricted esophagus. He was later transferred to India when his condition deteriorated before being airlifted to China in July for further medical tests.