U.S. COVID-19 case tally tops 40 million, and hospitalizations over Labor Day holiday were more than double last year’s

The global tally of confirmed cases of the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 climbed above 221 million on Tuesday, with the U.S. now accounting for more than 40 million, as the highly infectious delta variant continues to spread through the unvaccinated population.

The U.S. continues to lead the world by cases and fatalities and is averaging more than 1,500 deaths a day for the first time since March, according to a New York Times tracker. The seven-day average of new cases stood at 132,135 on Sunday, the tracker shows, while hospitalizations were averaging 101,747, or more than double the number recorded for Labor Day in 2020.

Despite pleas from public health experts and a pickup in the daily pace of vaccinations since employers started mandating them for workers returning to offices, just 53% of the U.S. overall population is fully vaccinated, while 62.3% have received at least one shot of a two-dose regimen, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tracker.

That means 47% remain unvaccinated, putting themselves at risk of a lethal disease.