Ten imported infections of the novel coronavirus were reported on Tuesday on the Chinese mainland, with six in Beijing, two in Shanghai and one each in Shandong and Gansu provinces, bringing the total of imported cases to 79, according to the National Health Commission.

Beijing's six new cases all came to the capital from other countries. Five were reported to have come from Italy and one from the United States, the Beijing Municipal Health Commission said.

The city also reported two new suspected cases — also people who had come from outside the country. Forty-four people had close contact with the newly confirmed and suspected cases, including 26 imported ones, the commission said.

The two cases reported in Shanghai were residents of Fujian province who had lived in Italy. They traveled from Bologna, Italy, via Moscow, Russia, and arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Sunday, the city's health commission said.

They were sent to designated medical institutions for observation and treatment on arrival at the airport because they had symptoms at the time, the commission said.

The imported case confirmed in Gansu was one of 311 people who traveled from Iran to Lanzhou, the provincial capital, from March 2 to March 5, the provincial health commission said.

Qingdao, Shandong province, confirmed one case on Tuesday. That person, a 54-year-old man, had returned from Italy on Sunday, according to the city's health commission.

The man, surnamed Xin, is a resident of Pingdu, a county-level city in Qingdao. He left Bologna, Italy, on Friday, then changed planes in Dubai and arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport on Saturday.

He then took flight MU5194 from Beijing to Qingdao and arrived at home on Sunday morning. Authorities in Pingdu arranged a special vehicle to pick him up from the airport in Qingdao and sent him home for self-quarantine. He was sent to the hospital on Monday after getting a fever and diarrhea. The next day Xin was confirmed positive.

Twenty people who had close contact with Xin, including 16 in Qingdao who have been under quarantine and medical observation. The other four had gone to other cities.

In Hebei province, which neighbors Beijing, 82 people had entered from other countries as of Monday, by Hebei Daily reported.

Of those, 19 had flown from Japan, 18 from South Korea and the rest from other countries. All are now under quarantine and none have been reported as confirmed or suspected with the virus.

They first arrived in other provinces from outside the country and transferred at airports in the Hebei cities of Shijiazhuang, Handan, Qinhuangdao, Tangshan and Zhangjiakou.