Health authorities in China said on Thursday the country's COVID-19 epidemic has "basically" ended, but it is not completely over as it found seven imported cases of the highly-transmissible XBB.1.5 variant since January 8.
The country strengthened its health care system in anticipation of the virus spreading to rural areas. Officials said at the press briefing on Thursday that critical care beds had expanded to 404,000 from 198,000.
Health officials and experts were also monitoring the XBB.1.5 sub-variant of Omicron for months. On January 4, data showed no new variant was found in the country.
