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BOSTON (CBS) – As colleges and universities across the state prepare to welcome back their students to full in person learning, school officials are doing their part to make sure students are well informed and prepared about new COVID-19 protocols and requirements.

WORCESTER — COVID-19 continues to wallop Central Massachusetts, with UMass Memorial Health President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson reporting a 40% positivity rate Monday at testing sites, while hospitalizations that have surpassed previous pandemic highs.

Hospitals nationwide are once again buckling under the strain of COVID-19 cases as the ultratransmissible omicron wave crashes into health care systems that are already critically short-staffed and exhausted from previous waves of the pandemic.

The president of UMass Memorial Health last week expressed to staff that “all hands-on deck” were required to help with COVID-19 testing sites both in Worcester and Marlborough as the omicron variant continues to surge within the region.

The evidence of the capacity crisis was everywhere — with patients in hallways and placed in any spare room. Dr. Eric Dickson, CEO and president of UMass Memorial Health, said one patient, a 90-year-old woman, was placed in a pediatric trauma room. 

Virtually all COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts are now resulting from the omicron variant. It took over in hospitals in late December, according to an analysis from Cambridge Health Alliance.

Worcester, Massachusetts (CNN) - An incoming tide of patients is slowly drowning UMass Memorial Medical Center, and the US military's National Guard is working to plug the gaps.

UMass Memorial Health President and CEO Dr.

WORCESTER, Mass. — A COVID-19 testing site in Worcester made an emergency call for staffing help Friday night

WORCESTER, Mass. — Massachusetts health care workers are exhausted as they try to navigate the unprecedented number of COVID-19 cases fueled by the omicron surge.

Hospital officials in Massachusetts are warning that intensive care unit (ICU) beds are nearing capacity as the state's positivity rate nearly doubled in a week due to the highly contagious Omicron variant.

WORCESTER — Wednesday marked a grim record in the city's ongoing battle with COVID-19.

With 3,513 new cases since last week's press conference, the city is shattering records for transmission.