WBJ Staff

In WBJ’s annual survey of readers regarding their outlook for next year, the overwhelming consensus is 2020 was not a good year for businesses in Massachusetts, but 2021 will almost certainly bring better fortunes.

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.

A shopping plaza on Old Connecticut Path in Framingham anchored by a Stop & Shop grocery store has sold for $23 million.

Natick healthcare startup Naveris announced the closure of its Series A financing round Tuesday, noting it has raised $19 million since the company was founded. 

Thrive Support & Advocacy, a human services nonprofit in Marlborough, will expand into a new Worcester office to serve more families in and around the city.

The property housing a nursing care facility in Northbridge has sold for more than $5.8 million to a Wellesley investor, who also bought the nursing home for an undisclosed sum.

HealthAlliance's hospitals in Leominster and Clinton are outsourcing their cafeteria work but will keep all workers employed.

An autism study center at UMass Medical School in Worcester has joined a learning health network of the national advocacy group Autism Speaks.

Worcester Polytechnic Institute has won a $3-million grant from the National Science Foundation to start a graduate program aimed at helping to create more environmentally sustainable communities.

Quinsigamond Community College will offer free nurse assistant and home health aide training and administrative medical professional programs next year, thanks to grant funding.