Marlborough – If all goes according to plan, Marlborough will soon have a state vaccination site open for not only the city’s residents, but all Massachusetts citizens.

They’ve been on the front lines of the pandemic for almost a year. They’ve battled under grueling conditions. They’ve saved lives and watched people die. And a staggering number have become sick themselves.

UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center is welcoming a four-legged, tail-wagging furry friend to its staff Friday.

An in-residence assisted therapy dog named “Valentina” is officially becoming a full-time resident of the medical center as part of the Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood Foundation’s Dogs for Joy program.

 As a Black man, Brian Gibbs believes people of color must speak up and communicate with others to help them understand that the U.S. has left so many Black and brown communities vulnerable and neglected.

"There's a need to have a more honest and transparent conversation to understand the risk that communities of color are disproportionately burdened," said Gibbs, who was recently appointed  vice president and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer at UMass Memorial Health Care.

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, officials across the country hoped a “new normal” would arrive with the debut of a vaccine.

The vaccines have arrived, but “normal” remains months away, according to Dr. Michael Hirsh.

While science was crucial to the creation of the COVID-19 vaccine, good old-fashioned trust is key to making the nationwide vaccination effort a success.

With this is mind, the UMass Medical School, in collaboration with the Worcester Department of Health and Human Services, sponsored a webinar Thursday addressing the hesitancy of people in the Latino community to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Cronavirus case numbers continue falling a little more than a month after Christmas from what had been record highs in Massachusetts around the holidays.

A total of 3,007 new cases in Worcester County in the week ending Thursday is the lowest since early December — though still far higher than the area's first peak last spring. Massachusetts had 25,951 new cases, also the lowest since early December, according to the state Department of Public Health.

UMass Memorial Health Care is setting up a COVID-19 vaccination site at Mercantile Center, adjacent to the COVID-19 testing site.

But UMass Memorial Health Care President and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson said the site will initially be available only to already-identified patients in the UMass Memorial system, not to the general public.

Massachusetts has millions of residents to vaccinate in hopes of ending the coronavirus pandemic. UMass Medical School hopes it can serve as a testing ground for how to quickly administer doses statewide – and potentially beyond.

To start, it may all depend on how things go in Worcester.