A 36-year-old woman in China's northern municipality of Tianjin was detained by police on Monday after "deliberately concealing" her contact with someone from a coronavirus-stricken area, according to Xinhua news agency.

According to the report, the woman, surnamed Liu, had hurt virus prevention and control work through her actions and local public security authorities took her in for "administrative detention." It was not clear whether she had since been released.

The death toll in China from the newly identified virus, which emerged in Wuhan, capital of the central province of Hubei, rose to 361 as of Sunday, with more than 17,000 cases of infection.

China has implemented strict transport curbs in the areas most affected by the virus and asked all those who have visited Hubei, where almost all the deaths have occurred, to isolate themselves for 14 days.