In the fight against the coronavirus, hospitalizations are rising in several states among unvaccinated people as the so-called Delta variant spreads in the U.S.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said he wants more people vaccinated; his state has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country.
"When our cases went down, the demand for vaccines was reduced as well. And so what you have is that people started feeling comfortable. People saw the cases of hospitalizations down. And so the urgency of getting the vaccine slowed down. We've got to make sure that we do everything we can to get the word out," said Hutchinson.
Hutchinson said he thinks some of the hesitancy is rooted in the FDA's vaccine approval technically being emergency use. He believes final FDA approval would help.
More than 46% of the total U.S. population, or about 153.8 million people, has been fully vaccinated, and 54% of the total population have had at least one dose.
But states like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Wyoming are among the states with rates lower than 35% of their population vaccinated.
This story originally reported by James Packard and Robin Dich on Newsy.com.
