Here’s a map showing where low vaccination rates meet high case numbers with increased infections

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More and more US counties with lower vaccination rates are starting to see a spike in Covid cases, putting residents at risk of “non-essential” infections, hospitalizations and potential deaths as the delta variant ruptures across the country, according to US health officials.

“After several weeks of declining case numbers, followed by a long period of stabilization, we are seeing an increase in the number of cases in many parts of the country now,” said Dr. A call hosted by an industry group Tuesday. He said hospitalization rates, which tend to lag confirmed cases, have similarly started to rise.

CNBC’s analysis of US vaccination rates and Covid cases shows there are 463 counties across the US with high infection rates — reporting at least 100 new cases over the past week per 100,000 residents — more than double the rate in the United States. Analysis showed that the majority of those counties, 80%, have vaccinated less than 40% of their population of 23 million, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Johns Hopkins University.

More than half of the counties in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana have low vaccination rates and elevated levels of Covid cases, according to a CNBC analysis. These three states are seeing some of the highest levels of cases per capita in the country over the past seven days amid increased prevalence of the delta variant in southwest Missouri.

“The increase in cases among unvaccinated Americans and in communities with low vaccination rates will continue, especially given the prevalence of the more transmissible delta variant,” Jeff Zentes, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said at a briefing last week. US officials say nearly all hospital admissions and deaths from the Covid virus, 99.5%, occur among unvaccinated people.

In fact, cases nationwide rose again as the highly transmissible delta variant took hold with the strain prevalent in the United States. The seven-day average of newly confirmed COVID cases rose to about 23,300 per day, nearly double the average from A week in the past, according to Hopkins data.

The rise of the variable delta has prompted officials in some states such as Mississippi to issue new calls for concealment and social distancing, especially among older and more vulnerable residents.

“When the delta strain came out[in Utah]it quickly became the dominant strain, and I don’t mean 50% dominance. In the last full week of data, more than 80% of the viruses of the sequence were delta and so far said Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of pediatric infectious diseases At the University of Utah School of Medicine, in a call Tuesday hosted by the American Infectious Disease Association, this week it accounts for 92% of all variables.

“If you think about what it means to take over the virus so quickly, it means that it is the most convenient virus that spreads more efficiently, that it spreads in unprotected pockets and causes a lot of disease, a lot of stress in it.”

Mississippi gave at least one shot to just 37% of its population, ranking last in the country. Officials there have asked people over 65 and immunocompromised residents to avoid any indoor mass gatherings for the next two weeks amid a “significant transition” of the delta variant over the coming weeks.

“We don’t want anyone to die needlessly,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, a Mississippi state health official, said during a news conference Friday.

Currently used Covid vaccines have proven successful in preventing severe disease, hospitalization and death from the delta variant, according to Dr. Rochelle Walinsky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Penetrating injuries are rare, and about 75% of people who die or are hospitalized after vaccination are over age 65, according to the CDC.

“Preliminary data over the past six months indicates that 99.5% of deaths from Covid-19 in states have occurred to people who are not immune… the suffering and loss we are seeing now is almost entirely avoidable,” Walinsky said earlier this month.

In addition to the risk of disease for Americans who haven’t yet had a shot, the presence of unprotected pockets of the population could threaten the country’s ability to control the pandemic. Continued transmission of the virus means additional opportunities for new variants to emerge, with one potentially being able to evade the protection offered by vaccines.

While 48% of Americans are fully vaccinated, the frequency of daily injections has slowed significantly in recent months. About 515,000 vaccines were administered per day on average over the past week, according to CDC data, after a steady decline from peak levels of more than 3 million daily injections in April.

President Joe Biden renewed his administration’s efforts to increase vaccination rates after failing to meet Fourth of July goals, focusing on teens as well as increasing availability in places like doctors’ offices and workplaces.

According to a CNBC analysis, nearly 1,600 counties in 40 states with 72 million residents have vaccinated less than 40% of their residents. Six states where district-level vaccination data were not available were excluded from the analysis.

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