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Shannon Miller, the most decorated U.S. gymnast in Olympic history, provided a perspective only another gymnast could give when it came to Simone Biles’ decision to retire from the team final on Tuesday for psychological reasons.

“What I think is really important here is that you have Simone who clearly knew something was wrong, and when you’re flying and tilting and spinning 10-15 feet off the ground looking for a landing, you’d better be doing the right headspace or really bad things are going to happen, “Miller said in an interview on Tuesday night on CNBC’s The News with Shepard Smith.

Biles said she was not in the right shape to continue the competition.

“Physically, I feel fine,” she told Hoda Kotb on the NBC show “TODAY” after she retired. “Emotionally it varies depending on the time and moment. Coming here to the Olympics and being the main protagonist of the Olympics is not an easy task. So we just try to take it one day at a time and we’ll see.”

Miller, who has won a total of seven Olympic medals, told host Shepard Smith that Biles was sending a critical message to the world.

“I think it is so important to have the message sent that it is important to be aware of your body, your emotional state, and your mental state. I think this is good news for all of us, ”said Miller.

United States President Barack Obama attends the game between the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers on October 27, 2015 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Gary Dineen | National Basketball Federation | Getty Images

Former President Barack Obama has become a strategic partner and minority owner in the Africa business of the National Basketball Association, which oversees the Basketball Africa League.

The NBA launched its Africa unit in May and values ​​the deal as a $ 1 billion company. NBA Africa oversees the BAL, which held its inaugural season last May, and has investors like Dikembe Mutombo, Grant Hill and Junior Bridgeman. The League said Obama would use his share of NBA Africa to fund the Obama Foundation’s youth and leadership programs across Africa.

The terms of Obama’s involvement were not disclosed.

Under the leadership of CEO Victor Williams, NBA Africa aims to build corporate partnerships, expand content and media rights, and support local governments in building new basketball arenas. The BAL includes 12 teams and league games broadcast in 215 countries and territories, and the NBA sees basketball as the top sport across Africa in 10 years.

There are currently 55 players, either from Africa or whose parents are African by birth, in the NBA. Team owners see the BAL as a way to discover and develop talent in the fast growing continent and another way to increase their global appeal. Sports betting partners could also test new technologies in the league.

Nigeria-based industrial conglomerate Yinka Folawiyo Group and Helios Fairfax Partners Corporation, an investment holding company that trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “HFPC”, are investors in NBA Africa, alongside former NBA players Luol Deng and Joakim Noah also investors. In addition, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and NBA Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum have seats on the board.

Benjamin Chukwukelo Uzoh 2nd R of Rivers Hoopers of Nigeria vies with Wilson Nshobozwa of Patriots Rwanda during the opening game of the first ever Basketball Africa League BAL in Kigali, capital of Rwanda, on Jan.

Cyril Ndegeya | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

“The NBA has always been a great ambassador for the United States – it uses the game to create deeper connections around the world, and in Africa basketball has the power, opportunity, wellbeing, equality and empowerment across the continent,” said Obama in a statement. “By investing in communities, promoting gender equality and cultivating a love for basketball, I believe NBA Africa can make a difference for so many young people in Africa.”

Obama praised the “NBA’s commitment to Africa, including the leadership of so many African players who want to give back to their own countries and communities.”

“We are honored that President Obama has become a strategic partner in the NBA Africa and will support our far-reaching efforts to expand basketball on the continent,” Silver added in a statement. “In addition to his well-documented love of basketball, President Obama firmly believes in Africa’s potential and the tremendous growth opportunities the sport offers. NBA Africa will benefit tremendously from his involvement.”

Medical workers with Delta Health Center wait to vaccinate people at a pop-up Covid-19 vaccination clinic in this rural Delta community on April 27, 2021 in Hollandale, Mississippi.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

Covid cases are doubling across several states and hospitals are starting to fill up again, especially in states with lower vaccination rates as the highly contagious delta variant rips across the country.

Two of the states hit hardest last week — Mississippi and Louisiana and — have the nation’s worst and fourth-worst vaccination rates and rapidly climbing Covid hospitalizations.

Louisiana Health Officer Dr. Joseph Kanter, said Friday the state was in the middle of “a very dangerous surge.” Gov. John Bel Edwards said the outbreak there was so bad, the White House designated Louisiana as a “state of concern.” He and Kanter urged everyone, including fully vaccinated people, to wear masks indoors and work from home when possible.

“To ensure their own safety people in Louisiana should take precautions immediately. Masking and testing will limit death and suffering until we make it through this,” he said in a press release. New Orleans officials issued a citywide indoor mask advisory earlier in the week.

The surge in average new cases, which have jumped by more than 105% over the past week to a seven-day average of 7,592, has some Louisiana residents rushing to get vaccinated, state officials said. Just 41.2% of the state’s residents have had at least one Covid shot, according to CDC data, but many are rushing to get them as evidence mounts that the delta variant is attacking mostly unvaccinated people, state officials said. More than 58,000 Louisianans received their first vaccine doses last week, a 153% increase from the previous week, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Neighboring Mississippi also saw vaccinations jump last week as average daily cases climbed by more than 132% a seven-day average of 910 new cases per day as of Sunday, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The state’s administered at least one shot to just 38.6% of its population — ranking it last in the country.

In Mississippi, the state’s given almost 27,000 first doses administered over the seven days through Sunday, 42% more than the prior week.

“Y’all, we’re going to have a rough few weeks,” State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state’s former top epidemiologist, told reporters at a press conference last week. “Delta is hitting us very strongly. We anticipate that we’re going to continue to put additional pressure on the healthcare system.”

Across the nation, roughly 73% of available hospital beds are currently in use, about 4.5% are taken up by Covid patients, according to CDC data. But they account for a greater share of available ICU beds, comprising about 11.9% of all intensive care patients.

In Louisiana, Covid patients are using 8.4% of all available beds and about 16.8% of ICU beds, according to the CDC. Covid patients in Mississippi are taking up 7.2% of all hospital beds and 23% of ICU beds.

Dobbs said there are currently 13 hospitals across Mississippi that have “zero ICU beds and a significantly higher number than that have less than 10% availability.” He said 93% of the state’s Covid cases and 89% of the deaths in the past month are among unvaccinated individuals.

Vaccination rates there are also climbing. The the state administered almost 27,000 first doses over the seven days through Sunday, a 42% jump from the prior week. Vaccine reluctance is high across the state, officials said, adding that they are trying to convince residents one person at a time to get the shots. State officials pleaded with elderly and vulnerable residents earlier this month to avoid large indoor events.

“We hear it all, from the microchip insertion to the depopulation plan using the vaccine to the magnetizing people. I mean you name it, we’ve heard it,” state health department Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dan Edney told reporters last week.

Hospitals, in the meantime, are keeping a close watch on their ventilator supplies.

“Our number of cases is increasing rapidly,” Dobbs said. “Our ICU utilization is starting to rise to levels not seen since last summer, and we’re also seeing an increase in the utilization of our mechanical ventilators.”

CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this reporting.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to recommend Tuesday that fully vaccinated people begin wearing masks indoors again in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates, according to people familiar with the matter.

Federal health officials still believe fully vaccinated individuals represent a very small amount of transmission, according to the sources. Still, some vaccinated people could be carrying higher levels of the virus than previously understood and potentially transmit it to others, they said.

The CDC is slated to hold a briefing at 3 p.m. ET on Tuesday.

The updated guidance comes ahead of the fall season, when the highly contagious delta variant is expected to cause another surge in new coronavirus cases and many large employers plan to bring workers back to the office. In mid-May, the CDC said fully vaccinated people didn’t need to wear masks in most settings, whether indoors or outdoors.

Read More: Americans will need masks indoors as U.S. heads for ‘dangerous fall’ with surge in delta Covid cases

Health experts fear delta, already the dominant form of the disease in the U.S., is hitting states with low vaccination rates. Those states are now being forced to reintroduce mask rules, capacity limits and other public health measures that they’ve largely rolled back in recent months.

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that the CDC was considering whether to revise mask guidance for vaccinated Americans, saying it was “under active consideration.”

“It’s a dynamic situation. It’s a work in progress, it evolves like in so many other areas of the pandemic,” Fauci, also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN. “You’ve got to look at the data.”

The CDC’s guidance is only a recommendation, leaving it up to states and local officials on whether to reintroduce their mask rules for certain people. But even before the CDC’s anticipated guidance Tuesday, some regions were reintroducing mask mandates and advisories as Covid cases began to spike again.

Several counties across California and Nevada are now advising all residents to wear masks in public indoor settings — whether they are vaccinated or not. In Massachusetts, officials in Provincetown advised all individuals to resume wearing masks indoors after Fourth of July celebrations led to an outbreak of new cases.

Experts say Covid prevention strategies remain critical to protect people from the virus, especially in areas of moderate-to-high community transmission levels.

Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and vaccine advocate who has served on advisory panels for both the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration, told CNBC earlier this month that the U.S. was still “undervaccinated,” with about half of the population not fully inoculated.

Even people who are fully protected have cause for concern when it comes to Covid variants, Offit said. While the vaccines protect well against severe disease and death, they may not protect as well against mild disease or spreading Covid to others, he said. No vaccine is 100% effective, he noted.

“It is not a bold prediction to believe that SARS-CoV-2 is going to be circulating two or three years from now. I mean there are 195 countries out there, most of which haven’t been given a single dose of vaccine,” Offit said. “Will it still be circulating in the United States? I think that would be very, very likely.”

Israel released preliminary data last week that showed the Pfizer vaccine is just 39% effective against the virus there, which officials attributed to the rapidly spreading delta variant. Its effectiveness against severe disease and death remained high, the data showed. U.S. and world health officials said they are looking at the Israeli research, which was not peer-reviewed and was scant on details.

Executives from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have said they expect Americans will need booster shots, and Pfizer has said it plans to ask the FDA to authorize boosters as it sees signs of waning immunity. Federal health officials say booster doses of the vaccines are not needed for otherwise healthy people at this time, although they may recommend it for the elderly or people with compromised immunity.

– CNBC’s Meg Tirrell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.