US states that saw some of the country's worst Covid-19 case rates over the past week also reported the highest number of new vaccinations per capita, data published Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

Tennessee, which reported the country's worst Covid-19 cases rate, had the sixth-best rate of new vaccinations per capita in the US over the past week. The state's hospitals are "under increasing strain from the highly contagious Delta variant," Tennessee's health department wrote on Twitter Thursday, adding in a statement that the strain was continuing to fuel an increase in infections.

"Many hospitals are experiencing capacity constraints unlike we have seen during the pandemic," the department said, urging residents to get their shots and adding that most cases and hospitalizations are among the unvaccinated.
Roughly 42.1% of residents are fully vaccinated.

Alabama, which had the second worst-case rate, reported the highest number of new Covid-19 vaccinations per capita in the country in the past week.
"With the highly contagious Delta COVID-19 variant circulating, and cases, hospitalizations and deaths increasing, we continue urging all eligible people to be vaccinated as quickly as possible," Alabama State Health Officer Dr Scott Harris said in a statement on Thursday, as the state's health department announced a new Covid-19 vaccine campaign.
On Thursday, the state reported a 22% positivity rate and categorized every single one of its counties at a "high" level of community transmission. More than 3,000 people were hospitalized with the virus across the state, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Roughly 38.6% of Alabama residents are fully vaccinated.
Other states that are reporting some of the country's worst-case rates but high numbers of new vaccinations include Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, and South Carolina.
AdventHealth's Central Florida Division reported a decline this week in Covid-19 patients in its hospitals -- but said the number continues to be higher than earlier surges.

"We are optimistic in that we feel that number is going to continue to go down, but it's important to understand our hospitals and ICUs continue to be a very tight capacity," Dr Victor Herrera, the chief medical officer at AdventHealth Orlando said in a briefing. "It's going to be some time before we really feel that relief."