Staff members work at the health and quarantine comprehensive laboratory of Sichuan International Travel Health Care Center (Chengdu Customs Port Outpatient Department), in Chengdu, southwest China's Sichuan, Feb. 15, 2020. (Photo: Xinhua)

Beijing on Wednesday reported one imported case of a patient who tested positive after she was cured of COVID-19 and flew back from Sweden.

The patient, a 31-year-old Chinese woman from Central China's Hubei Province who was working in Sweden, had fever in early October and tested positive for the novel coronavirus and received treatment in a hospital in Sweden on October 14. Two later tests on October 21 and October 30 showed she was negative for the virus.

She left Sweden on November 2 and reached Beijing on Tuesday via Denmark.

Her throat swab test collected at Beijing customs turned out to be positive and diagnosed as a second infection.

The patient is receiving medical treatment in Beijing's Ditan Hospital.

All of the woman's close contacts have been quarantined and put under medical observation.

Health authorities warned residents to avoid taking international flights with layovers to reduce their chances of being infected and report their health conditions when entering customs.

With COVID-19 cases rebounding sharply in countries from North America to Europe, Chinese embassies in several countries, including Russia, the US, and the UK, are now requiring Chinese and foreign passengers flying to China to present negative results of serum IgM antibody tests, in addition to the usual negative nucleic acid test results, before boarding their flights.

The date of the regulation's implementation varies but normally starts in November.