MEXICO CITY, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Mexico has registered 12 straight weeks of an increase in COVID-19 cases, with a "slight rise" in deaths and hospitalizations, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Tuesday.
There was a "big contrast" between the number of infections and the number of deaths, he stressed, thanks to a nationwide vaccination campaign against COVID-19 launched at the end of 2020.
"The good news throughout this recent wave and the previous one is that there is a big contrast between the increase in cases and the slight rise in hospitalizations and deaths," Lopez-Gatell told the media.
Immunization makes the disease less severe, he said, noting hospital occupancy in general is at 8 percent, but just 3 percent for beds with ventilators or for COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms.
According to the latest data, some 84 percent of the population is vaccinated in Mexico as the country experiences its sixth wave of infections.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Mexico has logged 7,314,891 COVID-19 cases and 331,595 deaths from the disease, according to official figures.
