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WORCESTER, Mass. — Police departments across central Massachusetts handed out gift cards in exchange for guns on Saturday as part of UMass Memorial Health's annual "Goods for Guns" buyback program. 

Participants received gift cards ranging in value from $25 to $75, depending on the type of guns they handed in.

REGION – The Corridor 9/495 Regional Chamber of Commerce announced the winners of its year-end awards earlier this month, recognizing businesses and individual contributors to the area business community.

WORCESTER, Mass. - Students and artists are making garden tools and sculptures from destroyed guns. 

“It's their way of showing that these weapons can be transformed into something beautiful," John Hayden, founder of Guns 2 Gardens Massachusetts, said.

Worcester and eight other police departments will be conducting a gun buyback program Saturday as part of a collaborative initiative to try to reduce the number of firearms in the community.

People can drop off firearms, unloaded and wrapped up or in a bag, and collect a gift card for groceries without having to provide identification or weapon information.

WORCESTER, Mass. - It’s hard to believe that the most vaccinated state in the country, Massachusetts, is seeing a third surge of COVID-19.

UMass Memorial president and CEO, Dr. Eric Dickson, says it's frustrating to see another surge of the virus, especially with more than 72% of Massachusetts residents being fully vaccinated.

HOLDEN (CBS) – Karen Raphaelson walks very carefully around her active dogs these days, just off knee replacement surgery that she had to wait a year for. “It’s been pretty bad, I’d fall a lot, my knee would give out,” said Raphaelson.

Despite having one of the nation's highest vaccination rates, Massachusetts is in the midst of a full coronavirus resurgence. The state's daily case average is now at its highest point in nearly a year, and in the last month alone, new hospital admissions have more than doubled.

With Central Massachusetts seeing another COVID-19 surge UMass Memorial Health is reporting a steep increase in inpatient cases over the last month and a lack of beds to meet current patient demand.

In four weeks, there has been a rise from 70 to 198 inpatient cases, Dr. Eric Dickson, the president and CEO of UMass Memorial Health, wrote in an email to caregivers on Tuesday.

WORCESTER, Mass. - A new variant of COVID-19 discovered in South Africa is spreading and a local doctor says there are a number of mutations in this one and it could become the primary variant going forward.

Omicron has led at least 44 countries including the U.S. to impose travel restrictions from several African countries. There are currently no known cases in the U.S., but UMass Memorial Health internal medicine specialist, Dr. Robert Klugman, says there's a high chance there will be.