Telegram & Gazette
Emily Palumbo said she didn’t set out to make history by getting the first COVID-19 vaccine in North Central Massachusetts.
“I had to make (my appointment) early because my daughter is getting braces today,” Palumbo said, laughing.
But as a registered nurse in the emergency department at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital s Leominster campus, Palumbo said it was time to move forward.
“It’s been a long nine months in the emergency department,” Palumbo said. “I’m hoping we can move forward and do what’s best for the patients and the community.”
Palumbo was the first of a stream of front-line caregivers at the Leominster hospital to get vaccinated Wednesday morning, Dec. 16, as nurses, doctors, and other workers with whom COVID-19 patients are in contact filed into a conference room every 10 minutes to receive the first of two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
Children’s mental health has worsened and suicidal thoughts have increased during COVID pandemic and remote learning, physicians say
Updated Dec 19, 2020;
With children in Massachusetts continuing to learn remotely, full- or part-time, during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, physicians have noticed concerning declines in students’ mental health.
Young people have started to require more significant care through inpatient programs or hospitalization, Worcester-area doctors say. They’ve observed increases in suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, substance use and obesity among patients this year. Those problems are exacerbated for children in urban school districts, where more students live in poverty and have higher educational needs. It further stretches the education gaps that already existed.
Worcester reports 1,390 more COVID cases as Mayor Joseph Petty begs families to not travel for the holidays
Updated Dec 18, 2020;
Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty and city medical director Dr. Michael Hirsh said Friday that the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine finally brings light at the end of the tunnel.
But, Hirsh said there are likely at least three dark months left ahead as cases of the virus surge in the city and in Massachusetts.
This week, the city saw 1,390 more cases of the virus, Petty announced during a press conference Friday. Last week, officials reported 1,268 cases of the virus, which was an all-time high for the second week in a row.
The City of Worcester has set another single-week record in new COVID-19 cases, city officials reported Friday, a number boosted in part by an extra reporting day because of Thursday s snowstorm.
The city reported 1,390 new cases in the past week, bringing Worcester s total so far throughout the pandemic to 12,785.
Regardless of the exact reporting period, the city s cases remain around all-time highs, tracking consistently with Worcester County and Massachusetts cases that have generally flattened at all-time highs.
Worcester County surpassed 4,000 new weekly cases in the week ending Thursday for the second straight week, as cases near 34,000 since the pandemic began, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. New Massachusetts cases exceeded 32,000 for the second straight week, with statewide cases totaling more than 292,000.
UMass Memorial Health Care, the largest employer in Central Massachusetts, plans to have all of its health providers vaccinated against coronavirus by mid-February, a period of roughly two months.
All of the system s caregivers are expected to have at least appointments in place for vaccinations by Jan. 11, according to a memo sent to employees Friday. Those who are providing care directly to COVID-19 patients are going first, followed by those with less contact with virus patients, and then other providers.
In all, UMass Memorial Health Care plans to have all of its caregivers vaccinated by mid-February.
Each Pfizer vaccination requires two doses given three weeks apart.