Here in the U.S., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said COVID-19 is “becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” as cases continue to rise in all 50 states — driven by the Delta variant — with the most dramatic increases in areas with low vaccination rates. Twenty percent of new cases are being reported in Florida alone. U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said vaccine refusal puts children under 12, who are not able to get the vaccine, at risk.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: “Our kids depend on us, the people around them, being protected, being vaccinated, in order to shield them from the virus. And that’s why, again, it’s so important for us to get vaccinated. I’m worried that what we’re starting to see increasingly in states like Arkansas and Missouri and Nevada and my home state of Florida and Louisiana, these surges within the unvaccinated population.”

Dr. Murthy also says he expects more localities throughout the U.S. to reimpose mask mandates and other mitigation measures, as L.A. recently did, as numbers continue to rise.

Meanwhile, at least five Texas Democrats who fled to Washington, D.C., last week to block their state from passing sweeping voter restrictions tested positive for COVID-19. The legislators were fully vaccinated.