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For intensive care nurse Elizabeth Phelan, and others at UMass Memorial Health Care, its one day at a time right now.

“We keep telling ourselves this is not how it’s going to be forever, this will all end eventually, and we will get back to normal eventually, we just have to take it day by day,” said Phelan.

In response to the fighting spirit of health care employees like Phelan, more than 30 cities and towns joined forces to help with the tough days in a massive show of support.

Childhood obesity has increased seriously in the last decade and has reached crisis levels, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Approximately 12.7 million, or 17 percent, of children and adolescents are obese. Overweight children are much more likely to become overweight adults unless they adopt and maintain healthier patterns of eating and exercise, notes the group. The disorder is also one of the easiest to recognize, yet most difficult to treat, according to AACAP.

It was a press briefing a year ago on Sunday which started it all.

In an interview March 14, 2020, City Manager Ed Augustus said, "Things are literally changing by the hour. We're continuing to monitor those situations, guidance from the state and federal government, as well as folks who are being tested."

The City had just confirmed it's first case of coronavirus. Thousands would follow in Worcester, millions worldwide.

As a military veteran, it may be a natural comparison for Dr. Eric Dickson to make a war analogy to the coronavirus pandemic he, UMass Memorial Health Care, and the entire Central Massachusetts region are starting to emerge from after a nearly year-long fight.

“We’re approaching V-Day,” Dickson said, referring to the day World War II ended. “We’re feeling that the end of this is near.” 

There was a time when it was possible for the average resident to not know anyone who died from, or even came down with, the COVID-19 virus. 

Not anymore. Few of us remain who don't know someone who simply had to isolate for a few weeks with mild symptoms, or someone who spent time in the hospital, or someone who had it with no symptoms at all. Or someone who died. A grandparent. A cousin. An in-law. 

Worcester Academy sophomore Justin Mohaghegh of Holden tested positive for COVID-19 in January. Before getting back to playing his sports — basketball and golf — he had to complete the school’s five-stage protocol.

It's a process familiar to all Worcester Academy student-athletes who contract the coronavirus.

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s new air sampler can help monitor for airborne pathogens, and signals renewed interest in bioaerosol surveillance.

UMass Memorial Health Care is rebranding itself as UMass Memorial Health and adopting the tagline “the relentless pursuit of healing,” which CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said reflects the organization’s focus on caring not just for the health of the individual but the health of the community. 

“We feel it better tells the story of who we are and better tells the promise of what we are going to deliver to people in the coming years,” Dickson said in an interview Tuesday. “As we evolve, the brand had to evolve with us.” 

A new technique is helping doctors at UMass Memorial Medical Center treat men with prostate cancer and improve their quality of life.

UMass began performing the robotic Retzius-sparing prostatectomy within the last three months, but urology specialist Dr. Igor Sorokin says the technology has been around for a few years and first became popular in Europe.