The Coronavirus-19 infections are rising fast all over the United States as the highly contagious Delta variant spreads.
There were some "breakthrough" infections that are happening to vaccinated people, but the rising tide of cases and hospitalizations is mainly a threat to those who are not vaccinated. In some parts of the country, most people aren't vaccinated — so the virus can still do some serious damage.
Nationwide, the average number of new cases per day was up by 55 percent over the past week.
New cases increased in 46 states, and many of those increases are substantial.
Florida is now averaging just under 6,500 new cases per day — by far the most of any state, and a 91 percent jump from the week before.
New cases more than doubled over the past week in Mississippi — from about 320 per day to about 660 per day. The state has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country; just 34 percent of its residents are fully vaccinated.
Earlier this summer, the U.S. seemed to have COVID-19 on the ropes. But now the Delta variant is sweeping through the country.
"Breakthrough infections" — people who have contracted the virus even after being vaccinated — are getting a lot of attention as cases mount. But it’s clear that those infections are not the primary driver of this new surge in cases, and that vaccinated people are much, much safer than unvaccinated people.
There are 97 percent of people hospitalized for COVID-19 infections are unvaccinated, the CDC said a few weeks ago, and federal officials have previously said that about 99 percent of people who die from the virus were not vaccinated.
Of those 160 million people, just 3,733 have subsequently been hospitalized for a severe COVID-19 infection, according to the CDC’s most recent update, and 791 have died from the virus.