Washington, Dec 17 (IANS): While the start of US Covid-19 vaccination campaign this week has brought hope to the public, cases and hospitalisations continue to soar across the country.

The US started its Covid-19 vaccine rollout nationwide on Monday as the death toll of the pandemic topped 300,000.

US federal officials leading the vaccine effort said earlier this week that they expect 20 million people to get the first of two required doses by the end of the year, Xinhua reported.

Frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities are the first groups to get the vaccine, based on recommendations of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The immunization campaign is expected to expand in the days ahead. In the meantime, however, the US has averaged about 211,000 new coronavirus cases every day.

On Tuesday the country reported 201,776 new cases and nearly 3,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to data updated by the CDC on Wednesday.

The country also recorded all-time high Covid-19 hospitalizations, with 112,816 cases as of Tuesday, the 10th day in a row breaking the previous day's record, according to The COVID Tracking Project.

Strained hospitals across the country continue to see a surge of patients and their available bed numbers dwindle.

Los Angeles County reported fewer than 100 intensive care unit beds remaining, an alarming new low for the nation's most populous county.

"We must all work together to prevent as many hospitalizations and deaths as possible while we wait for the COVID-19 vaccine to be widely available," Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement.

Vaccinations will ultimately change the country's grim trajectory, but not for a few months, public health experts warned.