question: In December 2019, there was an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China. The number of patients in China has risen to 31,000. We collected patient data from four Chinese cities (Hefei, Hangzhou, Wenzhou, Shenzhen) and described epidemiologic characteristics. As of 6 February 2020, we extracted data from 950 patients from the four cities. There were 477 (50.21%) males and 473 (49.79%) females of age (mean ± SD) 45.64 ± 15.59 years. Before contracting COVID-19, 299 patients had contact with Wuhan residents or contact with patients diagnosed with COVID-19 (31.47%). Also, 138 patients had SARS-CoV-2 infection of unknown source (14.53%). COVID-19 patients in the four cities were mainly from Wuhan originally, and had spread infection locally. Therefore, the initial stage of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in cities outside Wuhan were mainly input. Cutting off input and controlling community communication would reduce local incidence.