The gross domestic product figures for the July-through-September period, released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, came in far lower than the booming 6.7 percent growth in the previous quarter, reflecting an economy struggling anew amid the delta variant surge, which tore through unvaccinated communities in August and September and is only easing now.

The third quarter was the economy’s worst since the pandemic devastated the economy in the first half of 2020, as global supply chain backlogs, higher prices and labor shortages continue to bedevil the recovery.

Economists, policymakers and consumers alike had hoped that widely available vaccines would help bolster the recovery going into the fall. But the coronavirus surge held back progress and underscored how intertwined the pandemic and economy remain 21 months after the country’s first confirmed case of the virus.