Health Care

Worcester County's death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has reached a morbid milestone: 1,000 deaths.

Galaxy Life Sciences, a sister company to the developer of the Trolley Yard retail complex in Worcester, on Friday evening announced plans to spend at least $50 million to develop a biomanufacturing facility at the 46-acre Worcester life sciences campus The Reactory.

The second part of the Phase Three of the Massachusetts economic reopening plan has been suspended indefinitely, Gov. Charlie Baker announced on Friday, along with a slew of other changes intended to stop the spread of COVID-19, as cases and related deaths have slowly begun to increase.

Worcester science museum EcoTarium announced Friday it will lose 24 staff positions when it closes for the fall and winter on Sept. 4, as it struggles with reduced revenue in the coronavirus pandemic.

May was a month when Massachusetts largely got coronavirus under control and hospitals began looking ahead to resuming somewhat normal operations. But it wasn't a return to normalcy with hospitals' financials.

Worcester County reported 972 new confirmed and probable coronavirus cases and 70 fatalities in July. That pales in comparison to April and May, but cases are now creeping back up.

Holliston’s Harvard Bioscience has returned on course in the second quarter after a rocky start to the year, where it had a $4.5-million loss in the first quarter, according to its earnings report from Wednesday.

Sunovion Pharmaceuticals of Marlborough has partnered with a Nashville, Tenn. company to create a virtual reality-based treatment for social anxiety disorder.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the state's largest private health insurance provider, said Wednesday it will return $101 million in premium refunds and anticipated rebates to its members because of lower-than-expected healthcare costs during the coronavirus pandemic.

Mevion Medical Systems of Littleton, which makes proton therapy systems for use in radiation therapy for cancer patients, has signed a deal to bring its technology to a new collaboration in Spain.