According to reports, the fresh COVID-19 outbreak, which was first registered in the Chinese city of Nanjing, has now spread across five provinces and even the capital city Beijing.

Almost 200 people have been infected since the virus was first detected at the city's busy airport on 20 July, reports BBC.

This round of infections started in Nanjing, in east China's Jiangsu Province, when nine airport cleaners at the Nanjing Lukou International Airport tested positive during routine testing on July 20, reports China's Xinhua news agency.

The city, which has a population of over  9.3 million,  reported a total of 190 locally transmitted confirmed cases by Friday, media reports said.

Nanjing had designated 30 areas as medium-risk for COVID-19 and one as high-risk. All tourist sites in the city have been closed since Saturday, reports Xinhua.

According to Shao Yiming, a researcher with the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the spikes in cases are limited to a relatively small scale, especially compared with the situation in other countries and regions of the world.

"Judging from our experience since the second half of last year, we are able to detect the epidemic early and take intensive measures to contain it within a few weeks," Shao told Xinhua.

China had reported the first COVID-19 case in 2019 in Wuhan.

It soon spread to other portions of the globe.