Two of Maryland’s hospital systems will reinstate some mandatory masking rules after a large spike in respiratory illness infections.
The University of Maryland Medical System and LifeBridge Health will require people to mask up in patient-care areas like emergency rooms and doctor’s offices.
However, people will not need to wear masks in areas like waiting rooms, cafeterias and elevators.
The policy change comes after the Maryland Department of Health sent a letter to hospitals and other medical centers urging them to implement universal masking after respiratory hospitalizations exceeded 10 people per 100,000 residents in the state last month.
MDH guidelines state that medical facilities should switch to universal masking and other protective measures like optimized ventilation when hospitalizations get that high.
“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data through December 21 shows the Maryland combined hospitalization rate for the week ending on December 16 was 11.4, in large part to increasing COVID and flu infections,” David McCallister, a spokesperson for MDH told WYPR. “The Department recommends implementing broad facility-wide source control in all patient care areas and patient-facing healthcare settings, including outpatient and long-term care.”
The University of Maryland Medical System and LifeBridge’s policy are considered hybrid and not universal masking.
That concerns some advocacy groups focused on immune health like COVID Safe Maryland says the hybrid policy does not go far enough.
“The airborne viruses are viable for hours, and they travel around where the air travels throughout the building,” said Rosalie Bright, an epidemiologist and volunteer at COVID Safe Maryland. “It's protecting the employee when they're right in front of a patient, but it's not protecting them when they're out in the hallway, or when they're with other staff who might be infected.”
Maryland, like most of the nation, is in its second year of dealing with what many clinicians have called a “triple-demic,” where RSV, the flu and COVID hit populations hard in the winter.
“We have seen an increase in these diseases after the holidays,” Dr. Leana Wen, a former health commissioner of Baltimore and a scholar at George Washington University and the Brookings Institution, said on WYPR’s Tom Hall show.
The CDC recommends everyone get vaccinated for COVID and the flu. The agency also suggests that people over 65 get the RSV vaccination.
