During the height of the pandemic, Worcester was hit hard. On Friday, the city offered free coronavirus testing, masks, and hand sanitizers outside of city hall. People started lining up early from Worcester, and surrounding cities and towns.

Many people that lined up say, they aren’t taking any chances, and are taking precautions and want to know if they are carrying the virus.

During the height of the Coronavirus pandemic, UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester was running on surge capacity.

Massachusetts locked down fast and hard in March in response to COVID-19, according to a new study examining the number of social interactions in the continental United States before and during the pandemic.

“Without question, we have seen a marked decrease in social interactions across the country this year compared to last year,” said Sean Lansing, director of client strategy at TOP Data, part of the TOP Agency network that does market research and data studies and conducted the new study.

In this new recurring Worcester Business Journal feature where leading executives interview each other, the president & CEO of Hanover Insurance Group and the president & CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care discuss their separate ascensions to the top job, why companies need to advocate for causes like social justices, and how to

UMass Memorial Medical Center has begun a pilot testing program using saliva to test for the coronavirus, offering a new method in addition to the more common nasal swab.

The pilot program, announced in a staff-wide memo, began Tuesday on four units in UMass Memorial's University Campus and three units on its Memorial Campus. Other sites will continue to use nasopharyngeal specimens, or nasal swabs.

UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, which used internet-based medical appointments rarely before the coronavirus pandemic hit, has now held more than 100,000 such telehealth visits.

That news, given Sunday in a memo to caregivers from the health system's top information and virtual medicine officials, came with another announcement: UMass Memorial will be switching to Zoom for telehealth visits on a pilot basis starting July 13, using the popular video conferencing platform in a professional version integrated into Epic, UMass Memorial's online patient health records system.

Safwat Basha walked into UMass Memorial Medical Center about three months ago concerned that he might have COVID-19.

The 41-year-old new father, who had no history of serious illness, would not emerge from the building for more than two months. He was put on a ventilator, with a breathing tube inserted in his trachea, as he battled the disease.

Tuesday, Basha walked back into UMass to thank the doctors and nurses who saved him.

“We want to thank all of them,” said Sarwat Basha, the man’s brother.

My colleague Lynn Reardon and I, registered nurses at UMass Memorial - Hahnemann Campus day surgery, returned to that department after being deployed to the COVID-19 CCU and SICU at UMass Memorial - Memorial Campus for two months.

We knew our journey would not be complete without recognizing the manager, Erin Guyette, and her amazing staff there.

With the peak of coronavirus over, Dr. Eric W. Dickson, CEO and president of UMass Memorial Health Care, has diagnosed himself with writer’s cramp from penning so many thank-you notes enclosed with bottles of his homemade maple syrup.

“I’ve got a lot of people I’ve got to thank,” Dickson said. “Twenty-seven gallons (of maple syrup) I’ll give out - give it all to the people that helped us, that helped get us through.”

But the ending of what Dickson called the pandemic “response” phase doesn’t mean that the challenges are over.

In the middle of the day Friday, at Worcester’s UMass Memorial Medical Center, 200 caregivers, maintaining COVID-19 precautions, stood silent outside the hospital’s main entrance for nine full minutes.

"It was overwhelming to stand her and just think about that poor man laying with somebody on his neck,” said Angela Halloran, a registered nurse.