While state data shows the vast majority of Marylanders currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated, the percentage of people fully vaccinated is ticking upward.|| COVID-19 updates | Maryland's latest numbers | Get tested | Vaccine Info ||Infections, illness and hospitalizations are increasing rapidly among fully vaccinated people, according to data from the Maryland Department of Health and new research.Some experts said it's time to reframe thinking that the vaccine likely won't prevent you from ever getting sick, but it will probably keep you out of the hospital and almost certainly prevent you from dying."It's scary, very scary. You think you're safe, but you're not," said Deborah Hernandez, of Baltimore County.Hernandez got her second dose of the Moderna vaccine in the beginning of February. Seven months later, she got COVID-19."I was pretty surprised to say the least," Hernandez said.Hernandez was at the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital on Tuesday for a two-hour infusion with monoclonal antibodies. She's worried about long-COVID and passing the virus on to her grandchildren, especially since she had been so vigilant already."Just because I have been cautious throughout -- not going to restaurants and avoiding big crowds -- it just kind of took me by surprise," Hernandez said.Health experts said this is the reality of the outbreak this September. While it remains rare for somebody who's fully vaccinated to die from COVID-19, it is no longer rare for the fully vaccinated to get sick -- and sick enough to be hospitalized.Anne Arundel County Health Officer Dr. Nilesh Kalyanaraman said it's likely a combination of waning vaccine efficacy and the rise of the delta variant."Because delta spreads more easily and causes more severe disease, we do see some hospitalizations," Kalyanaraman said.Over the past three months in Anne Arundel County, about 30% of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 are fully vaccinated.There's a similar timeframe and trend in neighboring Howard County, where health officials said roughly 30% to 40% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are fully vaccinated."In that group, we're finding that it tends to skew older and that it tends to be people with other conditions as well," Kalyanaraman said.For those wondering what's the point of getting the vaccine if they can still get COVID-19 and get sick enough to need an infusion treatment, the experts weighed in."It's critical to get your vaccine to decrease your chance of getting hospitalized, and also it turns out, long-COVID, those lingering symptoms, are much less likely to happen in the vaccinated as well, so there are a lot of good reasons to get vaccinated," Kalyanaraman said.This week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he believes the delta surge will lead to more public health measures similar to the vaccine mandate for employees of Baltimore City and Anne Arundel County.Anne Arundel County Executive Steuart Pittman said Tuesday that his administration is working on rolling out a passport system for vaccines and COVID-19 testing and that an announcement is coming soon.