Worcester City Hall and other city municipal buildings will reopen on Monday by appointment only, following their closure due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, the City of Worcester announced Friday.
Buildings reopening aside from City Hall include Worcester Public Library, the Department of Public Works and Parks offices, as well as 25 Meade St., which houses Inspectional Services, Worcester Division of Public Health and Fire Prevention.
The Worcester Senior Center will remain closed to the public as it is being used as an emergency dispensing site for vaccines.
City Hall and other buildings closed on Dec. 24 due to an increase in coronavirus cases. Cases, which spiked around the holidays, appear to be experiencing a slight downturn, according to public health data.
Worcester City Hall, other municipal buildings to reopen to the public by appointment only
Updated Jan 22, 2021;
Next week, Worcester City Hall and other municipal buildings are slated to reopen to the public after being closed while the city saw high numbers of COVID-19 cases.
City Hall, the Worcester Public Library, Department of Public Works and Parks offices, and 25 Meade St., which houses Inspectional Services, Worcester Division of Public Health and Fire Prevention, are set to reopen on Jan. 25, the city said in a statement.
The buildings will be open to the public by appointment only.
The Worcester Senior Center, however, remains closed because it is being used as a site to administer coronavirus vaccines.
Worcester City Hall open for appointments Monday
They had been closed at different levels since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Department of Public Works and Parks offices, and 25 Meade St., which houses Inspectional Services, Worcester Division of Public Health and Fire Prevention, are also set to reopen for appointments on Monday.
All three buildings will be open for appointments 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.
All branches of the Worcester Public Library will continue to offer curbside service for holding and pickup up books. The main branch only will begin to offer bookings for use of computers beginning Feb. 1. Registration for computers starts Wednesday.
New coronavirus cases in Worcester County have again broken a record, and this time deaths are also on the rise, according to new Massachusetts Department of Public Health data.
More than 150 UMass Medical School students are being trained to help quickly administer COVID-19 vaccinations in Worcester.
The students are part of an effort the Worcester school detailed on Wednesday to provide the highly anticipated shots to first responders, including firefighters and police officers, as well as residential care facility residents. Chancellor Michael Collins and UMass President Marty Meehan have also advocated for similar widespread vaccination efforts statewide.
More than 30,000 vaccinations have been shipped to health facilities in Worcester County as of Dec. 31, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, enough to cover 3.6% of the county s population. That s a share of more than 285,000 doses shipped statewide. More than 78,000 shots have been administered, according to the DPH, including what Worcester city officials have said are thousands at UMass Memorial Health Care and Saint Vincent Hospital.