Hospitals in several Democratic states have returned to mask-wearing amid winter virus surges.
This week, New Jersey’s largest hospital system, RWJBarnabas Health, reinstated the mask requirement for all staff, patients and visitors, despite the state’s Covid infection rate being “low.”
The system, which treats 3 million patients a year, said Monday that staff will provide new masks for everyone who walks through the door and “may ask you to replace your own mask with one provided by the hospital” as part of the mandate. .
Visitors will also be required to sanitize their hands before entering hospital buildings.
Several counties in the San Francisco Bay Area have also reinstated rules on wearing masks with an order in effect from November 18 to April 30, 2025.
Meanwhile, New York hospitals have also urged patients, staff and visitors to wear masks indoors and get vaccinated against Covid and flu, as rates have “really plummeted.”
And last month, New York City health officials recommended wearing masks on public transportation as winter temperatures rose.
The return to mask-wearing comes amid a surge of four winter viruses, including Covid and flu, which experts believe could be a sign of an impending “quadremic”.
New Jersey’s largest hospital system, RWJBarnabas Health, reinstated its mask mandate for all staff, patients and visitors (file image)
The CDC map above shows Covid wastewater activity levels by state. Missouri and South Dakota had the most activity.
Dr Joe Bresee, an infectious diseases expert who spent two decades at the CDC, including its flu division, previously told DailyMail.com: ‘We know these viruses are coming. We see them increase every year.
“We are expecting increases in the circulation of these four over the next few months and that would cause what we call epidemics (outbreaks).”
RWJBarnabas Health said masks are not currently required in outpatient facilities, such as doctors’ offices, but are “strongly recommended.”
The system also said that patients with fever, cough, muscle or body aches, or flu- or Covid-like symptoms should stay home and not go to the hospital.
RWJBarnabas Health said in a statement: “Every patient has the right to request that their healthcare provider and their staff wear a mask when treating them.”
CDC wastewater data suggests Covid activity is “low” nationally and deaths are at historic lows.
However, surveillance shows there may be a slight rebound in infections.
Four percent of Covid tests detected the virus in the week of November 6, a figure that increased to 5.4 percent during the week of December 7.
However, hospitalizations for flu-like illnesses are increasing.
About 3.3 per cent of all hospital admissions had a flu-like respiratory illness in the week to December 7, compared with 2.9 per cent two weeks earlier, an increase of 14 per cent.
However, rates are only considered “high” in Louisiana and Georgia.
The above shows the flu illnesses in each state. Only two, Louisiana and Georgia, are currently experiencing elevated levels of the disease.
The above shows the RSV hospitalization rate in the US by week.
Hospitals in Nassau and Suffolk counties in New York have also urged patients to wear masks and get vaccinated against Covid, flu and RSV.
Dr. Marc Lashley, a physician at Allied Physicians Group on Long Island, said WABC: ‘I am very concerned that the flu vaccination rate has decreased. “It has really taken a nosedive.”
Just under 22 percent of Nassau and Suffolk County residents report getting vaccinated annually against the flu, compared to 39 percent nationally.
However, the national rate is down from 40 percent at this time last year.
Covid boosters are also declining. As of last week, the Covid vaccination rate in Nassau and Suffolk counties was just over six percent, well below the national rate.
The CDC estimates that as of Nov. 9, only 17.9 percent of adults had received the vaccine during the week through Nov. 9.
Mask mandates have long been considered controversial.
A major study published last year by the Cochrane Institute, for example, found that wearing masks made “little or no difference” to Covid infection or death rates.
And researchers at the University of East Anglia found in a May study that the protective effect of masks appeared to wear off in February 2022, around the same time California lifted its mandates.
The team believed this was because the Omicron variant, which later mutated to FLiRT, was too infectious for masks to prevent.