UMass Medical School in Worcester is collaborating with Johns Hopkins University on two new coronavirus treatment and prevention studies using convalescent plasma.

The work is seeking to determine whether antibodies from those who've recovered from coronavirus can help those who've either been recently exposed or have symptoms from getting sicker. The two studies are looking in particular at whether giving people antibodies earlier in the illness is effective at treating the virus and in preventing those exposed to it from catching the disease.

The injuries Dan Hall suffered June 23, when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a vehicle on Plantation Street, were about as severe as you can get while still surviving.

He lost one arm in the crash, and the other was severely damaged. He also lost his spleen, broke his back and various other bones, and he was disemboweled.

In an interview Thursday, his mother, Susan Hall of Worcester, said staff at UMass Memorial Medical Center – University Campus told her they hadn’t seen someone that badly hurt in 20 years.

Dr. Maria Diaz, a primary care physician in Lawrence, thinks she has a plan that will allow her to keep working this fall. Her kindergartener has a full day, in-person option through his pre school. Her second grader will go live with in-laws in Sharon for the three weekdays when her public school is remote. On the two days when the second grade classes are in person, Diaz hopes to be able to work from home.

The old Worcester Boys Club building on Ionic Avenue is going to be rehabilitated.

Creative Hub Worcester will turn the facility into an arts and community center for the Main South community. In addition to the arts center, event space will be available to the neighborhood.

At Monday’s presentation, UMass Memorial Health Care announced they are providing a seven-year, $500,000 investment loan to Creative Hub Worcester. All involved see this project as an important piece in an underdeveloped community.

UMass Memorial Health Care was not alone in having to marshal all of its resources to fight the coronavirus pandemic in the spring and to delay revenue-generating procedures until the worst of the outbreak had passed.

The Worcester-based health system, however, didn't have as bleak of a financial quarter as could have been expected. In fact, it turned a $9.6-million operating profit in the three months ending June 30, according to financial documents released last week. 

UMass Memorial gastroenterologist Dr. Savant Mehta battled COVID-19 on a ventilator for two weeks. His wife, Sonia, watched in agony as her husband went from physician to helpless patient.

“There was like no hope,” Sonia said.

As a last resort to save Mehta’s life, doctors at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester used two transfusions of convalescent plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients.

Thousands of people are sharing a UMass Memorial Medical doctor’s mask message.

Dr. Luu D. Ireland took to social media to share her story about wearing a mak over the course of a long shift with the hope that others will take her words to heart and wear one too.

Worcester County reported 972 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases and 70 fatalities in July, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. 

The new cases in Worcester County increased in July to 13,322 since the pandemic began. Statewide, cases increased by 8,730 in the month of July, increasing the total to 117,620. 

Four Central Massachusetts hospitals have been included in an annual rating of the best places to receive specialty care services.

UMass Memorial Medical Center and Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham and Natick, and Milford Regional Medical Center each had specialties ranked as high performing by the U.S. News & World Report, a publication whose guides for hospitals, colleges and others can be highly sought.