Dr. Eric Dickson | Source | President & CEO at UMass Memorial Medical Center

We recognize that this bonus doesn’t compensate you for all that you did during this time — especially for those who directly cared for COVID-19-positive patients — but we feel strongly we need to show our gratitude to all of our caregivers for all that we accomplished together.

We are at the position that we now have probably have 70 patients across the city waiting for beds because the beds are all full in the hospital, which is blocking patients with emergencies from being seen. Even though its a relatively small percentage of people that are eligible that aren’t vaccinated, it's that 15 percent that is driving the hospitalizations.

We’re definitely seeing a rise in the number of cases and we’re watching it very closely. I think we’re seeing early signs that we could be going into a second surge. And I always think about this in terms of doubling rates. We have a percent positive rate of 1% and it went to 2% now it’s up to 4%.