A. woman and her child go through screening at Beijing Airport. 145 imported coronavirus cases in Beijing by Wednesday

China, the coronavirus pandemic’s original epicentre reported 47 new infections, all of them recent arrivals from abroad.

The total number of imported cases stands at 474. There were no local cases in the last 24 hours.

In its daily briefing on coronavirus, the Chinese National Health Commission also reported four new deaths.

Three of. them were in the hardest-hit Hubei province, bringing the total fatalities on the mainland to 3,281.

Some 491 patients were released from hospital after treatment, while 1,215 people who had had close contact with infected patients were released from medical observation.

The number of serious cases fell by 174, said the commission.

With the latest figures, the number of total COVID-19 cases reached 81,218.

After emerging in Wuhan in the Hubei province last December, coronavirus has spread to at least 197 countries and regions.

Iran, European countries and the U.S are bad cases.

The death toll in Italy is over 6,800, double the fatalities in China, as virus-related deaths reached 3,000 in Spain, 1,100 in France, and 800 in the U.S.