People over 75, front-line essential workers should get vaccine next, CDC panel says

The White House Coronavirus Task Force’s weekly guidance for governors is urging state leaders to “warn about any gathering during the December holidays.”

“This current fall to winter surge continues to spread to every corner of the U.S., from small towns to large cities and from farms to beach communities,” read the briefing, dated Dec. 13. “The fall surge is merging with the post-Thanksgiving surge to create a winter surge with the most rapid increase in cases.”

As vaccinations begin, the report said that “immunization of individuals over 65 [years old] will have the greatest impact on hospitalizations and deaths. For those over 70 with COVID infection, 20% or more are admitted [to hospitals] and nearly 10% die.”

“Many Americans continue to gather indoors, creating private spreading events outside of public spaces,” the report said, asking governors to focus “on uniform behavioral change including masking, physical distancing, hand hygiene, no indoor gatherings outside of the immediate households, and ensuring every American understands the clear risks of ANY family or friend interactions outside of their immediate household indoors without masks.”

ABC News’ Josh Margolin and Brian Hartman contributed to this report.

Another 15,800 to 27,700 COVID-19 deaths are expected in the U.S. by Jan. 9, according to a forecast released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This would bring the nation’s pandemic death toll to between 357,000 and 391,000.

ABC News’ Brian Reiferson contributed to this report.

Europe will begin vaccinations on Dec. 27, EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said.

“It's Europe's moment,” she tweeted.

The United States surpassed 17 million total confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, just five days after exceeding 16 million cases, according to real-time data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

The grim milestone came hours after the country reached new record highs in daily deaths, cases and hospitalizations.

A staggering 3,656 American deaths were reported on Wednesday -- resulting in an average of two deaths every minute in the last 24 hours.

Across the nation, 17,581 COVID-19 deaths were reported in the last week, more deaths that any other week since the start of the pandemic.

The U.S. is now averaging more than 2,500 reported deaths a day, according to a seven-day average, increasing by nearly 120% in the last month.

There are currently 113,069 people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the country, according to the COVID Tracking Project, marking the eleventh consecutive day that the nation has hit a record high of current hospitalizations. There are now nearly 40,000 more Americans currently hospitalized than one month ago.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.