With Some Exceptions, WVU Medicine Hospitals And Clinics Ending Mask Requirements Monday
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Outside of some exceptions, employees, patients and visitors to WVU Medicine hospitals and clinics will no longer be required to wear masks starting Monday.
In a message sent through the WVU Medicine network, the health system has decided to significantly relax masking requirements, which have been in place since COVID-19 first infiltrated the community.
Douglass Harrison, CEO of WVU Medicine Wheeling and Reynolds Memorial hospitals, said the announcement has been well-received by employees.
"There's certainly mask fatigue out there," he said. "I think this is a very positive step in the right direction."
The decision was spurred in part, Harrison said, by President Joe Biden's announcement last month that he would end both the national emergency and public health emergency declarations related to COVID-19 on May 11.
Among the exceptions in WVU Medicine hospitals are:
- Employees entering an occupied, inpatient room or a patient room in an emergency department at a hospital to care or provide support to a patient must wear a mask. An employee entering a vacant inpatient room to clean or service it does not need to be masked.
- Employees, visitors, or patients who are exhibiting respiratory symptoms - including but not limited to fever, cough, runny or stuffy nose, sore throat or shortness of breath - must wear masks in all settings, both inpatient and outpatient, and in all public spaces. Symptomatic inpatients are not required to wear masks in their patient rooms.
- Vaccine-exempt employees are still required to use N95 masks but only in areas where masking is required. For example, they are required to wear an N95 mask, instead of surgical mask, when entering an inpatient room of a non-COVID patient.
- In crowded waiting areas and lobbies, such as emergency department waiting areas, masks are strongly encouraged, but not required.
- Inpatients must wear masks when they leave their rooms unless the masks impede their care.
Providers and employees who still wish to wear masks are free to do so, the message stated.
Albert Wright, WVU Health Systems President and CEO, said in the message that if viral activity remains low, additional masking reductions could happen at the end of March. Harrison said that if COVID, flu or RSV numbers rise again, WVU Medicine hospitals may return to more stringent restrictions.
"We still reserve the right, if there are spikes in flu or COVID ... if we have to put masks back on, we'll put masks back on," Harrison said. "We have to protect our workers and patients. But right now, I think we're in a pretty good spot.
"I think with the mask fatigue, this is as good a time as any to start to relax and see where we go," he added.