Hospitals in several blue states have scaled back masking amid winter virus surges.
This week, New Jersey’s largest hospital system, RWJBarnabas Health, reinstated the mask requirement for all staff, patients and visitors, even though the state’s Covid infection rate is “low.”
The system, which treats 3 million patients a year, said Monday that staff will provide new masks for anyone who comes in and “may ask you to replace your own mask with a hospital-supplied mask” as part of the mandate.
Visitors must also disinfect their hands before entering hospital buildings.
Several counties in San Francisco’s Bay Area have also scaled back mask rules with an order in effect from Nov. 18 through April 30, 2025.
Meanwhile, hospitals in New York have also urged patients, staff and visitors to mask up indoors and get vaccinated against Covid and the flu as numbers have “really come down.”
And last month, health officials in New York City recommended masking up on public transportation as winter temperatures set in.
The return of masking comes amid a surge of four winter viruses, including Covid and the flu, that experts say could be a sign of an impending “quad-demic.”
New Jersey’s largest hospital system, RWJBarnabas Health, has reinstated its mask mandate for all staff, patients and visitors (stock image)
The above map from the CDC shows Covid wastewater activity levels by state. Missouri and South Dakota had the most activity
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Dr. Joe Bresee, an infectious disease expert who worked at the CDC for 20 years, including the flu division, previously told DailyMail.com: “We know these viruses are coming. We see them increasing every year.
“We are in for an increase in circulation in these four in the coming months, and that would lead to what we call epidemics (outbreaks).”
RWJBarnabas Health said masks in outpatient clinics such as doctor’s offices are not currently required but are “strongly encouraged.”
The system also said patients with fever, cough, muscle or body aches or Covid or flu-like symptoms should stay at home and not come to hospital.
RWJBarnabas Health said in a statement: “Every patient has the right to request that their healthcare provider and staff wear a mask during treatment.”
The CDC’s wastewater data suggests Covid activity is “low” nationally and deaths are at an all-time low.
However, surveillance shows that there may be a slight increase in the number of infections.
Four percent of Covid tests detected the virus in the week of November 6, which rose to 5.4 percent in the week of December 7.
However, the number of hospital admissions for flu-like illnesses is increasing.
About 3.3 percent of all hospital admissions suffered from a flu-like respiratory illness in the week to December 7, compared to 2.9 percent two weeks earlier, an increase of 14 percent.
However, rates are considered “high” only in Louisiana and Georgia.
The above shows flu illnesses in each state. Only two, Louisiana and Georgia, are currently experiencing high levels of the disease
The above shows the RSV hospitalization rate in the US by week
Hospitals in New York’s Nassau and Suffolk counties have also urged patients to mask up and get vaccinated against Covid, flu and RSV.
Dr. Marc Lashley, a physician with Allied Physicians Group on Long Island, shared WABC: ‘I am very concerned that the number of flu vaccinations has decreased. It has really plummeted.’
Just under 22 percent of Nassau and Suffolk residents report getting their annual flu shot, compared to 39 percent nationally.
However, the national rate is down from 40 percent this time last year.
The number of Covid boosters is also decreasing. Last week, the Covid vaccination rate for Nassau and Suffolk counties was just over six percent, well below the national rate.
The CDC estimates that as of November 9, only 17.9 percent of adults had received the shot in the week before November 9.
Mask mandates have long been considered controversial.
For example, a major study published last year by the Cochrane Institute found that masking made “little to no difference” in 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 disappear in February 2022, around the same time California lifted its mandates.
The team believed this was due to the fact that the Omicron variant, which later mutated into FLiRT, was too contagious for masks to prevent this.