COVID-19 cases are declining in Massachusetts.

But much of the state's health care system remains overwhelmed. 

The Baker administration in November instructed some hospitals to reduce certain non-urgent, scheduled procedures amid a strain on hospital capacity. And earlier this month, health care systems in the state announced that they were postponing thousands of surgeries to stay ahead of the wave of patients coming into hospitals. 

Those directives have led to patients, some of whom are coping with chronic pain and worsening conditions, facing delays in surgeries and other medical procedures, my colleague Kay Lazar reports.