'It was devastating:' North Carolina woman encourages COVID vaccinations after battle with virus
There's new concern about the Delta variant and the impact across America It now accounts for more than half of all cases in the country.
Twenty-five states including North Carolina are now reporting an increase in cases.
The number of new infections in the state was up 50% last week from the week before.
On Monday, the state added 562 new cases. The percentage of tests coming back positive is the highest in two months.
'Don't wait to vaccinate!:' Urgent new warning as NC sees troubling COVID signs
Experts say the places that have the least number of people immunized are the ones feeling this new surge.
"If you are unvaccinated and you're out in public, particularly indoors, you should be masked not only to protect yourself but to protect your families," said Dr. David Weber, infectious diseases specialist at UNC Health.
Dr Weber said people have also gathered for summer holidays and most mandates for social distancing and mask wearing are gone.
"My advice though is get vaccinated unless you have a medical contradiction for not being vaccinated or by you age you can't get vaccinated," said Weber, who also believes there will be another surge in the next few weeks.
The surge, according to Dr. Weber, though it won't be on par with the peaks of January and February due to the wide availability of COVID-19 vaccines.
"I think a lot of people think we're just so remote here we can escape getting it," said Linda Edwards, who lives in Graham County, which has one of the lower vaccination rates in the country.
She contracted the virus and wound up in a Western Carolina hospital for two weeks. Her son did too and was in the hospital room next to her.
"I just thought if I lived through this, I want to go on a mission to help people to see that it is not worth not taking the vaccine because of what it could do to your family," she said.
