With COVID-19 cases continuing to climb amid slowing vaccination rates, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday said the situation is “becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” as she called on more Americans to roll up their sleeves. 

Driven in part by the highly transmissible delta variant, the seven-day average for new infections as of Wednesday was 26,306, nearly doubling over the past two weeks. There were 33,292 new cases recorded Wednesday, the highest total in two months.

Meanwhile, coronavirus-related hospitalizations are up 36% since July 6, and deaths have climbed 37% since Sunday.

But health officials reiterated Friday that the increases are overwhelmingly among unvaccinated people — CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said 97% of COVID-19 patients entering hospitals have not been immunized.

To date, 48% of Americans have been fully vaccinated. While all 50 states are seeing increases in cases, those with some of the lowest vaccination rates are faring the worst in recent weeks, including Arkansas, Missouri and Louisiana. Meanwhile, better-vaccinated states are experiencing the lowest per-capita infection rates, including Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts.

“There is a clear message that is coming through: This is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Walensky said during a news briefing Friday. 

“The good news is that if you're fully vaccinated, you are protected against severe COVID, hospitalization and death and are even protected against the known variants, including the delta variant circulating in this country,” she added. “If you are not vaccinated, you remain at risk. And our biggest concern is that we are going to continue to see preventable cases, hospitalizations and, sadly, deaths among the unvaccinated.”

Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 coordinator, said four states have accounted for more than 40% of all new infections over the past week — with one in five occurring Florida alone. 

However, in a sign that attitudes toward vaccines might be shifting, the five states with the highest infection rates — Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Missouri and Nevada — were above the national average in new vaccinations in the past week, Zients said.

While there is an uptick in hospitalizations, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, cited data from Israel and the United Kingdom that indicate the vaccines should keep hospitalization rates low compared to past spikes in overall cases.