Last checked at 
(Adds Ohio governor, travel data)
WASHINGTON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The United States entered the
final month of the year with expectations that promising vaccine
candidates will soon be approved to halt the rapidly spreading
coronavirus after 4.2 million new cases were reported in
November.
The new COVID-19 cases were more than double the previous
monthly record set in October, as large numbers of Americans
still refuse to wear masks and continue to gather in holiday
crowds, against the recommendations of experts.
With outgoing President Donald Trump's coronavirus strategy
relying heavily on a vaccine, a Food and Drug Administration
panel of outside advisers will meet on Dec. 10 to discuss
whether to recommend that the FDA authorize emergency use of a
vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc.
The advisers will consider a second candidate, from Moderna
Inc, a week later, officials have said, raising hopes
that Americans could start receiving inoculations before the end
of the year, although it could take months to vaccinate people
widely across the country.
Other global pharmaceutical companies, including AstraZeneca
PLC and Johnson & Johnson also have vaccines in
the works, leading a member of the Trump administration's
"Operation Warp Speed" program to predict the country could be
vaccinated by June.
"One hundred percent of the Americans that want the vaccine
will have the vaccine by (June). We will have over 300 million
doses available to the American public well before then," Paul
Ostrowski, the vaccine program's director of supply, production
and distribution, told MSNBC television on Monday.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said officials in his state have
identified 10 hospitals that will receive the first doses of
vaccine, which he said should arrive around Dec. 15.
In the next several days, the state will inform the federal
government of other places where the shipments should be made,
he said. DeWine, interviewed on CBS' "This Morning" show on
Tuesday, added that the National Guard might get involved in
moving vaccines out to smaller counties.
First responders, nurses and doctors will be first in line
for the vaccines, as well as nursing home patients, he said.
"That December 15 date just can't come soon enough. We're
very excited about it and very happy about it," DeWine said
In the meantime, leading health officials are pleading with
Americans to follow their recommendations and help arrest a
pandemic that killed more than 36,000 people in November,
pushing hospitalizations to a record high of nearly 93,000 on
Sunday, according to a Reuters tally.
The widespread impact of the outbreak has led
Merriam-Webster to choose "pandemic" as the Word of the Year
after it racked up the most online dictionary lookups of any
word.
With more than 10,000 people dying and 1.1 million
contracting the coronavirus in the week ended Sunday, Republican
Trump has remained focused on overturning the results of the
Nov. 3 election won by Democratic President-elect Joe Biden,
denying Trump a second term.
Biden has pledged to make combating the coronavirus his top
priority upon taking office on Jan. 20, saying he will rely on
the best scientific evidence.
Millions of Americans defied experts' advice and traveled
over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, traditionally one of the
busiest periods of the year in the United States for flying.
The number of travelers passing through U.S. airports
reached 981,912 on Monday, down from 1.18 million on Sunday,
which marked the most since government restrictions began to
sharply depress travel in March, the Transportation Security
Administration said.
Both days' travel figures were less than half of their
year-ago levels, the TSA said.
(Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing
by Bernadette Baum and Jonathan Oatis)
