The latest data puts New York at a more than 1% percent COVID-19 infection rate - leading many to wonder why cases are going up.

Infectious disease Dr. Harish Moorjani says there are several reasons.

He says COVID-19 restrictions have been relaxed indoors, there is pandemic fatigue and a decrease in people getting vaccinated.

Moorjani says the Delta variant is being blamed for a majority of the cases, and the spike is being seen in unvaccinated patients.

"It's the unvaccinated people who will serve as breeding grounds for this virus and once this virus starts to multiply, it changes and variants emerge. Vaccines are the cornerstone to bringing this pandemic to a close," says Moorjani.

Dr. Moorjani also says even though New York state has a 70% vaccination rate, he says only 10% of the world's population got the vaccine.