Guangdong province, known as the southern gateway of the country, has reported a total of eight COVID-19 confirmed cases, including seven imported cases and another local case of an infection from a confirmed patient who returned home from abroad, on Saturday, according to a statement released by the Guangdong Provincial Health Commission on Sunday.

The confirmed cases include three reported in the Shenzhen special economic zone, imported from the United Kingdom, Thailand and Spain; three in Guangzhou, including two imported cases from the Philippines and Turkey; a local case infected by a patient who returned home from Turkey; one in Zhanjiang imported from France and the rest in Zhuhai, imported from the United Kingdom.

The local confirmed COVID-19 patient, surnamed Jin, 54, began to develop symptoms of muscle soreness and felt weak at home on Tuesday. He arrived at a local hospital to seek medical help and was hospitalized for treatment when he had fever on Friday.

Jin was immediately transferred to Guangzhou No. 8 People's Hospital, a designated hospital for COVID-19 patients, for isolated treatment when his nucleic acid test was positive early Saturday morning.

Jin, a native of East China's Jiangsu province, was confirmed as infected by his friend, surnamed Lin, who returned to Guangzhou from Turkey earlier this month. Lin, a businessman, also was confirmed to be an imported case on Saturday.

Jin once had close contact with Lin.

Saturday's figure has brought the total number of imported cases to 56 in Guangdong, one of the important windows for Sino-foreign exchanges in the mainland, as of the end of Saturday, the statement revealed.

To prevent imported infections, Guangdong has required all people entering to undergo 14 days of isolation for medical observation when they arrive in the province from abroad starting Thursday, the statement added.