Health Care

The Massachusetts paid family and medical leave program starts in the new year, meaning people may begin signing up Friday.

At the start of the first coronavirus wave in the Worcester area, the region was suffering worse than almost any other on a national scale. Now, cases are far higher than back then. Still, the Worcester metro area no longer stands out thanks to how broadly the virus has expanded elsewhere.

Patients in Massachusetts — at least pre-pandemic — are staying longer during hospitalizations at nearly five days on average.

It's no secret that 2020 was a historic year. From the coronavirus pandemic, to a rapidly fluctuating economy, and even a presidential election, there were no shortage of significant news stories. Here are WBJ's top 10 most read stories of the year.

A pair of buyers has paid $5.3 million for two properties hosting long-term care facilities in Gardner and Leominster.

It's been about as challenging a year as a hospital could face: a pandemic requiring an all-out emergency response and pushing aside day-to-day procedures and appointments that normally help make ends meet.

MassDevelopment has issued two bonds totaling $33.6 million to Worcester nonprofit Notre Dame Health Care Center, Inc.

If public health officials are correct and a post-Christmas coronavirus surge brings COVID-19 case numbers ever higher, Central Massachusetts will begin with a few hundred available hospital beds.

As vaccine teams prepare to visit long-term care facilities this week, more than 35,000 people in Massachusetts have received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 146,000 doses of the vaccine have arrived in the state so far, according the state's first round of vaccine reporting.

More than 10,000 new cases of COVID-19 were identified in Massachusetts over the Christmas holiday weekend, and 2,156 people were hospitalized with the respiratory disease as of Sunday, according to Department of Public Health data.