Even as the delta variant of the coronavirus spreads throughout the United States, D.C. tourists and residents remained mostly unbothered Sunday as they shopped and toured along the National Mall.

       The highly transmissible variant accounts for 83.2 percent of all new infections in the country, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some cities, including Los Angeles and St. Louis, have revived their mask mandates to slow the rate of transmission.

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       But on the Mall on Sunday afternoon, most of those in the crowd were without masks. The area was once quiet as the original coronavirus spread across the District at the beginning of the pandemic early last year, shutting down museums and other locations popular with tourists, but it has started to return to its typical capacity since the city lifted its shutdown measures earlier this summer as vaccination rates rose.

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       Collin Andrews, 20, was walking through the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden with a friend Sunday afternoon. Andrews, originally from Kentucky, got the two-dose Pfizer vaccine in the District in April. He said he knew one person who got covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, before the variants began to spread but that none of his friends have been infected with any of the variants.

       “I’m not horribly concerned with it,” Andrews said. “Vaccines work. Prevention measures work.”

       Preliminary data from several states over the past several months suggests that 99.5 percent of deaths related to covid-19 occurred among unvaccinated people, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House briefing Thursday.

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       Smithsonian Institution museums stopped using timed entry passes at many locations last week, a provision it put in place to mitigate the spread of the virus. Hundreds of visitors were lined up to enter the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and most stood clustered together as they waited.

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       Ishan Maratha, 19, was in line outside the museum with a small group of friends. Maratha received his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine in June in his hometown of Piscataway, N.J.

       “I am fully vaccinated, so I’m not too worried” about the delta variant, Maratha said. “But I’ve read reports of rising cases, so that’s concerning.”

       U.S. adults have had access to vaccinations for months. Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration authorized them to be administered to children ages 12 and older as well.

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       “I’m not personally worried, but I’m worried about the people who aren’t vaccinated — like kids — and those who are immunocompromised,” said Joe Welfeld, who was visiting the District on Sunday afternoon.

       Welfeld, 65, added that he wasn’t nervous about his personal safety because he got the Moderna vaccine as soon as he was eligible in his hometown of Danbury, Conn., in March.

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       Although many tourists expressed little concern about the coronavirus because they have been fully vaccinated, Sarah and David Holtz said they were worried because of the number of people who have refused to get the vaccine.

       “Now we’re seeing there’s a percentage that’s behind the curve, so to say,” said David Holtz, 63.

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       The Holtzes were vaccinated months ago and said their hometown, Annapolis, “embraced the science.”

       But the delta variant has caused them some trepidation about going out again — especially in the District, given the flux of tourists from across the country. The Holtzes pointed to such states as Florida, which have had rising hospitalization rates because of the spread of the delta variant.

       David Holtz, who works as a general manager at a distribution company, didn’t have to wear a mask at work once vaccinations started being administered. But now, mask mandates are back in place, and temperature checks may be on the horizon again.

       “We saw what covid-19 did .？.？. but there’s a balance between worrying about the business and worrying about your life,” he said.