As Covid-19 cases, deaths and hospitalisations continue to increase among the unvaccinated across the US, top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said that the country is "going in the wrong direction", the media reported.
"If you look at the inflection of the curve of new cases, that it is among the unvaccinated. And since we have 50 per cent of the country is not fully vaccinated, that's a problem," Fauci was quoted as saying to CNN on Sunday.
The majority of deaths could be, thus, among the unvaccinated, Fauci said.
"So it really is, as (Rochelle) Walensky (Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) has said many times and I have said, it is really a pandemic among the unvaccinated, so this is an issue predominantly among the unvaccinated, which is the reason why we're out there, practically pleading with the unvaccinated people to go out and get vaccinated," said the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.
The warning from Fauci comes as the dangerous Delta variant of Covid-19, which has spread to 124 countries, is now sweeping across the US.
Health officials are urging Americans to get vaccinated to help curb its spread.
Every state in the US reported more Covid-19 cases in the week ending on July 23 than the week prior, data from the Johns Hopkins University revealed.
Thirty states have yet to fully vaccinate at least half of their residents, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
And as of July 23, the daily average of people becoming fully vaccinated was the lowest it had been since the end of January, the report said.
Meanwhile, the CDC is also weighing the option of revising its Covid-19 guidelines to recommend that even fully vaccinated people wear masks in public, Fauci said.
He noted that some local areas where infection rates are surging are already urging individuals to wear masks in public regardless of their vaccination status.
The US continues to be the worst-hit country with the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 34,443,064 and 610,891, respectively, according to the latest update on Monday by Johns Hopkins University.
Health experts have blamed the recent surges on the low vaccination rates and the accelerating Delta variant transmission.
