Though more U.S. citizens are being vaccinated, officials are struggling to fight increasing rates of COVID-19 cases and the Surgeon General warns that now is the time to be cautious, according to CNN.

"There have been multiple times when we have been fooled by COVID-19, when cases went down and we thought we were in the clear and then cases went up again," Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "It means we shouldn't let down our guard until cases not only come down but stay down, and right now cases are actually going up. Cases are going up, hospitalizations are going up, death rates are ticking up."

Data from Johns Hopkins University revealed that the average of new daily cases this week is up 66% from last week and hospitalizations are also up by 26%.

The majority of COVID-related deaths, a total of 99.5%, are among the unvaccinated, according to the Surgeon General.

As virus cases increase and the Delta variant continues to spread, more than half of the US has yet to be fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

If many of those who are holding out do not get inoculated, Dr. Anthony Fauci said the US can expect a "smoldering" outbreak for "a considerable period of time."

In Louisiana, just under 4,000 new COVID cases have been reported and a total of 1,686,533 people in Louisiana are fully vaccinated, according to Louisiana Department of Health.