Several confirmed and asymptomatic infection novel coronavirus cases, which have direct relation with the COVID-19 cases in Dalian, Liaoning province, have been revealed recently in at least nine cities in Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang and Fujian provinces, data from these provincial health authorities showed.

Liaoning reported 13 new locally-transmitted COVID-19 confirmed cases on Saturday, 12 in port city Dalian and one in Tieling city, the Liaoning Health Commission announced on Sunday.

Liaoning now has 28 confirmed cases and 39 asymptomatic infections being treated in designated hospitals, the provincial health authority said.

Tieling's confirmed patient, a 55-year-old woman, was a worker at Dalian Kaiyang World Seafood Co, where the first confirmed case of Dalian's latest outbreak was reported on Wednesday. She left Dalian and arrived in Tieling on Tuesday.

In addition to Tieling, at least eight other cities and counties in Northeast China's Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang provinces and Eastern China's Fujian province have reported asymptomatic infections transmitted from Dalian as of Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday morning, Dalian announced it will conduct nucleic acid tests that cover all the city's residents. The cost of the nucleic acid tests will be borne by the government.

On Saturday night, Dalian announced changes and additions to risk categories in the city, including the Dalianwan sub-district of Ganjingzi district as a high-risk area instead of the previous medium-risk area. Besides the previous designation of the Gongrencun residential community of the Xianglujiao sub-district, Xigang district, as a medium-risk area, three new medium-risk areas were identified in Dalian Jinpu New Area, namely the Shengbin community of Zhanqian sub-district, Yangjia village of the Zhanqian sub-district and the Taoyuan community of Xianjin sub-district.