MEXICO CITY, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Mexico has seen a progressive increase in COVID-19 cases in the past nine weeks, but the trend has not translated into a rise in hospitalizations or deaths, Undersecretary of Prevention and Health Promotion Hugo Lopez-Gatell said Tuesday.

       The outbreak is currently expanding at a more moderate pace than the fourth wave of infections a few months ago, since it is fueled by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variants, said Lopez-Gatell.

       "This suggests that the population's immunity, either from getting COVID or being vaccinated, or both, is showing results and causing (the variants) to spread slower than the original Omicron variant," he said.

       The increase in cases, he stressed, has not carried over to hospitalizations or deaths.

       "We have on average five deaths per day nationwide, which is a markedly lower figure compared to what we experienced during the second wave in particular," he said.

       As of Monday, Mexico had accumulated 5,877,837 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 325,417 deaths.