Photo: Xinhua

 
Three provinces - Northeast China's Liaoning, North China's Hebei and Southwest China's Sichuan - have reported more COVID-19 cases that had close contacts with infections in Beijing.

Beijing reported 36 new local confirmed cases on Sunday, bringing the recent total to 79 from Thursday. A further six asymptomatic patients were also reported on Sunday. 

Hebei's health authority reported three more cases and one more asymptomatic case on Sunday who all had close contacts with Beijing's infections.

A further suspected case was reported in Sichuan, who arrived in the province by plane from Beijing on Tuesday. The patient's husband was confirmed to have been infected with the coronavirus on Saturday.

Liaoning also reported two new confirmed cases on Saturday. Both had close contacts with Beijing's confirmed cases. 

By Monday, a total of 499 confirmed local cases have been reported in Beijing since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. Of these, 411 have been discharged from hospital, nine have died. Meanwhile, seven asymptomatic infections are still under medical observation.