With explosions of Covid-19 cases in almost every state fueling yet another nationwide surge in the deadly pandemic, the 30 dancers of all ages and skill levels could be engaging in a risky pleasure.

"I thought partner dancing was always going to be the last thing to come back from the pandemic because there's so much interaction," said one dancer, Lorilee Schoenbeck, a naturopathic physician.

They reside in America's most vaccinated state -- 83.7% of Vermonters 12 and over have received at least one shot, according to health officials.

Throughout Vermont, hospital Covid-19 units are mostly empty.

Rochelle Walensky, Vermont health officials tout the Green Mountain State as the safest place in America.

Many Vermonters are venturing out, unmasked and with no fear, just as the CDC recommended on Tuesday that fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors in US counties with soaring transmission rates.

Mark Levine, state health commissioner, sat at a small conference table in his office and rattled off statistics that enabled Gov.

The state has maintained one of the country's lowest infection rates -- currently at 1.6% for a seven-day average, according to the health department's Covid-19 dashboard.

The state's vaccination campaign isn't done.

"The whole strategy is, we want a Vermonter to essentially stumble on the vaccine," Levine said.

"If you're at one of the beaches on Lake Champlain here in Burlington or you were ...

If there's a state fair, it's got to have vaccine.

If there's a farmers' market or a flea market, it's going to have vaccine."

Along Church Street Marketplace, visible from Levine's downtown office, the wide four-block concourse is crowded with people -- most not wearing masks.

"We want that vaccine rate up now in anticipation of the following winter so we don't have to change our behavior at that time."

Restrictions lifted 'because it's safe to do so'

On June 14, when Vermont became the first state to vaccinate more than 80% of its population over the age of 12, Gov.

At the same time, however, the Delta variant was starting to dominate the US.

A handful of states have been driving the bulk of the nationwide Covid-19 case surge and the threat of serious disease and death is to the unvaccinated, according to White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeff Zients.

Last week, just three states -- Florida, Texas and Missouri -- that share low vaccination rates accounted for 40 percent of all cases nationwide, Zients said.

And hospitals are filling up with Covid-19 patients again, this time with younger patients than before, according to doctors in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Missouri.

The only way to halt the resurgence, health officials said, is to get more people vaccinated.

But the reality is its likelihood of creating any major outbreak is really small because it's going to keep running into people that it can't actually get transmitted from because they are going to be immune."

'Community response and collective action'

At Northwestern Medical Center in St.

Albans is in Franklin County, where 73.7% of residents 12 or older have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the state health department.

"A lot of people see Vermont as being exceptional in some ways," said Anne Sosin, a policy fellow at the Nelson A.

There are many rural barriers to health care and Vermont demonstrated that if you bring vaccines to places where people live, work and play that you can overcome many of the obstacles to achieving high rates of vaccination.

Vermont not only used its health care system and large sites, but it's also brought vaccines out to firehouses, schools, community sites, pop up clinics, gas stations and beaches."

Sosin said rural Orleans County, in one of the most remote and conservative parts of the state, has a vaccination rate of 70.8%.

"The high rates of vaccination are a testament not only to a really well run state program but to the vast community infrastructure in that part of the state," Sosin said.

Lunderville, who wouldn't give her age but described herself as an "early senior," said the couple was initially reluctant to get the vaccine because they were "unsure if it was going to be safe." When vaccinated friends did not become ill, she said, they agreed to get the shot in mid April mostly in order make their customers feel comfortable.

"I like to make sure my campers are happy and safe," she said.

Lunderville said she still requires masks and gloves when people help themselves to food at the big holiday dinners on the campgrounds.

Shockley said there were at least 20 new faces on the dance floor on this Tuesday evening in mid July.

All participants had to show their Covid-19 vaccination card for admission to the weekly Vermont Swings class and the two-hour dance.

"There's a different kind of energy here," instructor Maria Garrido said.

I asked, 'Why don't you want to get the vaccine?' She says, 'I think it's some kind of game to make money by the pharmaceutical companies or the government telling us what to do.' "

Natalie Nachtigal, 32, said she moved to Burlington in September from Florida, which reported an average of 10,452 new cases each day over the past week -- more than triple the daily average from two weeks ago, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

"I don't feel any fear going out and a lot of it has to do with a sense of community that Vermont really lets shine," she said.

"It was definitely a weight off my shoulders to realize that I was going to a place where life could be a little bit more normal," Feinstein, a PhD student in psychology at the University of Vermont, said between dances.

"You don't know whether Delta or Covid 2021 or 2022 is coming down the pike.