BEIJING — China has scaled up land border control measures amid mounting efforts to prevent the importation of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases, an official said on April 13. 

Liu Haitao, a division head of the National Immigration Administration, made the remarks at a press conference on China's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Noting that most of the countries that share a land border with China have reported COVID-19 cases, he said "the epidemic situation is escalating and China is facing growing pressure from imported COVID-19 cases via its land border."

Apart from land points of entry and passages, China's long land border has a large number of mountain passes, shortcuts, ferry crossings and small paths, making it hard to control, Liu said.

Measures have been taken to prevent non-essential border crossings to the greatest extent, he said, noting that the number of border residents crossing the border from both sides has gone down by 90 percent.

Functions of land points of entry and passages have been restricted to goods transportation, while border ports and passages that have already been shut down remain closed, with strengthened protection, Liu said.

China has stepped up its fight against illegal border crossings and other cross-border criminal activities through means including intensifying border patrols, encouraging people to provide information and strengthening law enforcement cooperation with neighboring countries, he said.

"Illegal border crossings during the outbreak increase case importation risks," said Liu.

Among illegal border-crossing cases, he spoke of the investigation of three major cases of organized illegal border crossings by border authorities in southern China's Yunnan and Guangxi, which led to the interception of a number of people attempting to cross the border illegally.

The Chinese mainland on April 12 reported 108 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, of which 98, including 49 in Heilongjiang and 35 in Inner Mongolia on the northern border, were imported cases, said Mi Feng, a spokesperson with the National Health Commission, at the same press conference.

"The situation in terms of preventing imported cases and domestic resurgence is serious, allowing no room for letup in our epidemic response," said Mi.