BEIJING — China must shore up its preventive measures against the imported cases of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as cases are soaring overseas, a health official said on March 30.

Since China reported no new domestic case for the first time on March 18, there have been reports of sporadic cases in the country, said Mi Feng, a spokesperson for the National Health Commission (NHC), at a news conference in Beijing.

Mi urged solid implementation of prevention and control measures against a rebound in COVID-19 cases in the country and underscored the importance of community-level efforts.

A total of 638,146 COVID-19 cases have been reported globally as of 4:00 pm Beijing Time on March 30, according to the situation dashboard by the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO data showed global cases have increased by more than 10 percent every day in the past week.

The Chinese mainland reported 30 new imported COVID-19 cases on March 29, bringing the total number of imported cases to 723, according to the NHC daily report.