CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is advising unvaccinated Americans to refrain from traveling on Labor Day weekend as the Delta variant continues to spread and hospitalizations soar.

“Given where we are with disease transmission right now, we would say that people need to take their own risks into their own consideration as they think about traveling,” Walensky said Tuesday at a White House Covid briefing.

Walensky added fully vaccinated people can travel as long as they wear a mask.

The current 7-day average of new Covid cases is 142,006 -- a 2.8% increase in the past week. The current 7-day average for hospitalizations is 12,297, which marks a 5.7% increase from the prior 7-day average.

The current 7-day average in deaths is 864, amounting to an 11% increase in the past week, which had an average of 779 deaths.

Walensky recommends spending time outdoors with vaccinated family members over the weekend and advises people to wear masks indoors and in public to mitigate the spread of the virus.

“Throughout the pandemic, we have seen the vast majority of transmissions take place among unvaccinated people in closed indoor settings. Masks are not forever, but they are for now,” Walensky said.

Coronavirus CDC Labor day