Map of state vaccination rates shows clear partisan divide; stronger Delta variant is dominant in Ark., Colo., Mo., Utah

Screenshot of interactive CDC map; click in to enlarge. Mississippi has the lowest rate. Interactive site has rates by county. 

"The vaccination gap still looks a lot like America’s political divide," Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann report for NBC News. "There continue to be Two Americas when it comes to the country’s race to get vaccinated against Covid-19. You have the blue, highly urban and mostly college-degree-heavy states that have met – or exceeded – President Biden’s goal of 70 percent of adults having at least one dose by July 4. And you have the red, highly rural and mostly college-degree-light states that have come up way short."

Of the 19 states (including the District of Columbia) that have already hit the President Biden's goal of 70 percent vaccination by July 4, Biden carried every one of them, they note. "And of the 17 states that have yet to surpass even 60 percent, Donald Trump won them all with one exception: Georgia."

Lack of vaccination gets riskier daily because the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus is spreading rapidly, health experts warn. The variant "represents about one-quarter of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States, and is now the predominant variant in Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri and Utah, say public health experts," reports Dan Diamond of The Washington Post. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said Thursday, “In some regions of the country, nearly one in two sequences is the delta variant.”