WORCESTER, Mass. - It was another busy day of COVID-19 testing at the Mercantile Center in downtown Worcester on Thursday.

Hundreds of people lined up to get tested before New Year’s Eve. 

The testing center stopped letting people join the line after 11 a.m. to have enough time to get everyone tested and then get those tests to the lab before they close for the year.

Staff on-site handed out rapid at-home tests and N95 masks.

UMass Memorial Health president and CEO Dr. Eric Dickson says the current wave of positive cases will pass.

"It's hard to believe that right now we’re in the worst of this pandemic, but that’s the case despite being the most vaccinated state in the country,” Dr. Dickson said Thursday. “I think at this point we have to stick with what we’re doing. I don’t think closing down anything at this point it’s going to make much of a difference. No time to do surge hospitals. We’re just going to have to hang on for the next two or three weeks, let this very pass through, and then I think we’ll be on to better times."

Dr. Dickson says most of the positive cases of COVID-19 now are people who have been vaccinated, but don't need to be hospitalized. Currently, about 75% of COVID patients at UMass Memorial are unvaccinated.