The impact of weather on coronavirus infection rates has not been confirmed, said Cao Wei, Deputy Director and Associate Chief Physician of Department of Infectious Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital at a press conference yesterday.

China tightened quarantine measures for international arrivals as the country worries about a rise in imported cases of the deadly coronavirus and anger rages online at how Europe and the United States are handling the pandemic.

After declaring they had "basically" curbed the spread of the disease within China, where the virus first emerged, authorities have now ordered international arrivals into the nation's capital from yesterday onwards to go into centralised quarantine locations for 14 days.

About 20,000 people, one-tenth of them foreigners, have been entering China by plane each day on average since the World Health Organization declared a pandemic on March 11, according to an immigration official.

Airline passengers are now being transferred to an exhibition centre near Beijing's main international airport for medical screening before heading to quarantine facilities, reports AFP.

People in protective suits and police officers guarded the centre yesterday while ambulances waited outside on standby.

Travellers had previously been allowed to undergo the mandatory isolation at home but now only those with "special circumstances" will be allowed to do so.

People sent to the facilities must pay for their stay.

Authorities have given few details but at least three hotels told AFP they were designated to receive quarantined passengers. Staff wearing medical suits stood guard at hotel entrances.

People over 70 years old, minors, pregnant women, those who live alone, and people with underlying medical conditions can quarantine at home, Beijing city officials said.