Leominster

The unemployment rate in the city of Worcester dropped a full percentage point from February to March, hitting its lowest level since the coronavirus pandemic began.

UMass Memorial Health of Worcester announced on Tuesday it helped create a new TeamBirth partnership with Wellesley insurer Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Boston health center Ariadne Labs to launch a new initiative at the UMass hospitals in Leominster and Worcester, aimed at improving maternal health and birth outcomes.

Looking back over the past year, Erica Grinkis, owner of Leominster eateries The Gazbar and Central Cup, reflects on how operations changed but management remained the same when the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Power dynamics in the Central Massachusetts business community made two major shifts in 2021, due to the two major events upending the entire global community.

Since 2006, Welberson Nunes, along with his family, has been building his Universal Insurance Agency and now is poised for faster growth as he cultivates clients throughout Worcester and Middlesex counties to understand the fundamentals of insurance. 

The Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts announced on Monday it has dispersed another $290,575 in grant money to five area nonprofits helping to provide community relief in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Heywood Healthcare was profitable in its 2020 budget year, while most other Central Massachusetts hospital networks ran deficits despite federal coronavirus pandemic relief funding.

Massachusetts cities most affected by the coronavirus pandemic have gotten additional state aid, including nearly $834,000 for four Central Massachusetts cities for mobile vaccination and other efforts.

The Worcester area's unemployment rate improved slightly in February. But that good news masks a lingering problem: the number of people working dropped for the second straight month.

Six Central Massachusetts communities earned a total of seven state grants announced late Thursday aimed at improving urban neighborhoods.