Two-thirds of Americans living in counties with high vaccination rates are now also considered at high risk for COVID-19, according to a Washington Post analysis.
The Post classified the highest top quarter of counties as high vaccination, with at least 54 percent of the population fully vaccinated. The lowest quartile of counties were categorized as low vaccination, with fewer than 40 percent of the population fully inoculated. The Post considered hot spots as classified by the CDC, which identifies areas with high and rising caseloads as such.
On July 4, only 4 percent of residents in highly vaccinated communities lived in hot spots, compared to 13 percent of people in low-vaccination areas, reports the Post.
As of Aug. 11, the nation's seven-day average of daily new cases was 113,357, per the CDC. This is a 24.3 percent increase from the week before and a 875.6 percent jump from the lowest case average in June.
Even amid surges driven by the delta variant, it's still safer to live in a hot spot while vaccinated now than it was to live in a hot spot unvaccinated last summer, according to the Post. States with the highest vaccination rates have a third the number of new cases per capita compared to low-vaccination states. Virus hospitalization rates in states with less than 40 percent of residents fully vaccinated are four times higher than states with at least 54 percent vaccinated, the Post found.