WORCESTER, Mass. - After another emergency advisory from the CDC, local medical leaders are calling on pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

The message advises pregnant women to protect not only themselves, but their baby from the harmful virus. 

WORCESTER — The head of the largest healthcare system in Central Massachusetts says the hospital bed shortage and staffing crisis at UMass Memorial Healthcare have reached a tipping point.

As 25 Investigates’ Kerry Kavanaugh learned, plans are in the works to add more beds at the Worcester hospital, but requiring workers to get the COVID vaccine as a condition for employment could translate into fewer staff to care for patients.

It’s time — long past time — to settle the St. Vincent Hospital nurses strike.

I’ve written about the strike before. The nurses said they walked to protect their patients and demanded better staffing requirements. To make their case, they produced a mountain of complaints, many verified by nursing supervisors, that documented unsafe patient conditions.

The nurses strike at Saint Vincent Hospital, which began in March, reached its 200th day on Thursday.

The hiatus between the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Tenet Healthcare began over staffing but now continues because of a return-to-work provision.

The largest hospital system in Central Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Health, ran out of intensive care beds Wednesday as critically ill patients with deferred chronic health problems and those stricken with COVID-19 overwhelm health care providers.

Dr. Eric Dickson, president and chief executive of the system, described the situation as dire, but said patients are getting the care they need. UMass has hospitals in Worcester, Marlborough, Leominster, and Southbridge.

Dr. Eric Dickson is weary. He says the hospital system he heads has reached a crisis point.

He's the president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, based in Worcester. He says the region has almost 20 times more COVID patients hospitalized than in June, and that as of Tuesday, there is not a single intensive care hospital bed available in central Massachusetts. When a bed opens, there's a patient waiting to take it.

Dr. Eric Dickson, president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, called the current hospital system in central Massachusetts a 'crisis situation.' He said the ongoing strike between Tenet Healthcare and nurses at Saint Vincent Hospital plays a major role.

"We need to get those 600 nurses on the sidelines back to work," Dr. Dickson said. "Get those beds open."

Worcester medical leaders say the city’s hospital system is overwhelmed as COVID-19 cases surge again.

Doctors say about 130 people are hospitalized across central Massachusetts for COVID-19. At the end of June, the number was less than 10.

WORCESTER – Caroline Theerman knows what she’s going to do if a COVID-19 vaccine is approved for children younger than 12.  

Tuesday, Theerman stood among a throng of parents and their children in the Flagg Street School playground after school let out for the day. As children ran about having fun - including Theerman’s two children who attend the school - Theerman said she’s happy about the prospects for a vaccine that her kids could take in the near future against COVID-19.