More than 99% of Covid-19 deaths in the United States in June were among unvaccinated people, according to Fauci

As the Delta variant spreads rapidly, US hotspots have seen cases climb – and an expert warns that a “surprising amount” of Covid-19 deaths could soon follow.

The United States averages about 19,455 new cases in the past seven days, a 47% increase from the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And a third of them, according to CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner, come from five hot spots:

“In places like Missouri where intensive care units are crowded, you’re going to see a startling death toll,” Reiner said Sunday.

At Mercy Hospital in Springfield, Missouri, 91% of intensive care patients are on ventilators and many are in their 20s, 30s and 40s, executive director Erik Frederick told CNN on Saturday. This is of particular concern, he said, because at the peak of last year, there were only 40 to 50 percent of intensive care patients on ventilators.

Typically, increases in Covid-19 death rates follow three to four weeks after peak cases, Reiner said. It takes a week for patients to get sick enough to require hospitalization, and often another two weeks for the infection to become fatal.

“We’re going to start to see an increase in mortality in this country,” Reiner said.