Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Aug 19, 2024 2:06:19 GMT
Baystate Health reinstates mask mandate amid rising COVID-19 cases - Published Aug 17, 2024
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Baystate health facilities prepare to reinstate a mask mandate as COVID cases are on the rise, starting on Monday.
Regions across the United States are seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases with the new COVID-19 variant, KP.
“It worries me that COVID cases are rising but it seems that hospitals should be a place where mask mandates maybe are always a thing,” New York resident Rose Adams told us.
We learned that Baystate Health is responding to the rise in COVID cases, by reimplementing a mask mandate.
In a statement to Western Mass News, Baystate said:
“The decision to move to the yellow tier was based on a steady trend of increasing COVID-19 cases. Based on community testing and wastewater surveillance data, we expect this trend to continue.
Starting Monday, August 19th, masks will be required for direct patient care at all Baystate Health hospitals and the D’Amour Center for Cancer Care. Care partners and other visitors over the age of five will be required to wear a mask.”
We caught up with Dr. Jonathan Bayuk, president of Allergy and Immunology Associates Of New England, to see how his office might respond to the COVID concerns.
“I am not going to implement a mask mandate in my offices because I do not think it’s necessary, if patients and/or staff want to wear masks, that’s great,” he said.
He has been keeping track of the latest variants and vaccine in the works.
“There’s five of them, and they’re pretty similar, and we will have a vaccine for them in the next six weeks, the previous vaccine is not that effective for it so that’s where the concern is,” Bayuk told us.
He added that he remains confident that if there are more spikes, the new vaccine will bring these numbers back down.
“The pandemic is over, so it’s an endemic virus, so that means that it is just here, it will be here, it will go up at different times, different times as people move around, and get exposed, but that’s it.”
Masks will be required at Baystate hospitals starting Monday.
We did reach out to Cooley Dickinson Hospital as well, and we’re told they do not have plans to reinstate a mask requirement at this time.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB/WSHM) - Baystate health facilities prepare to reinstate a mask mandate as COVID cases are on the rise, starting on Monday.
Regions across the United States are seeing a rise in COVID-19 cases with the new COVID-19 variant, KP.
“It worries me that COVID cases are rising but it seems that hospitals should be a place where mask mandates maybe are always a thing,” New York resident Rose Adams told us.
We learned that Baystate Health is responding to the rise in COVID cases, by reimplementing a mask mandate.
In a statement to Western Mass News, Baystate said:
“The decision to move to the yellow tier was based on a steady trend of increasing COVID-19 cases. Based on community testing and wastewater surveillance data, we expect this trend to continue.
Starting Monday, August 19th, masks will be required for direct patient care at all Baystate Health hospitals and the D’Amour Center for Cancer Care. Care partners and other visitors over the age of five will be required to wear a mask.”
We caught up with Dr. Jonathan Bayuk, president of Allergy and Immunology Associates Of New England, to see how his office might respond to the COVID concerns.
“I am not going to implement a mask mandate in my offices because I do not think it’s necessary, if patients and/or staff want to wear masks, that’s great,” he said.
He has been keeping track of the latest variants and vaccine in the works.
“There’s five of them, and they’re pretty similar, and we will have a vaccine for them in the next six weeks, the previous vaccine is not that effective for it so that’s where the concern is,” Bayuk told us.
He added that he remains confident that if there are more spikes, the new vaccine will bring these numbers back down.
“The pandemic is over, so it’s an endemic virus, so that means that it is just here, it will be here, it will go up at different times, different times as people move around, and get exposed, but that’s it.”
Masks will be required at Baystate hospitals starting Monday.
We did reach out to Cooley Dickinson Hospital as well, and we’re told they do not have plans to reinstate a mask requirement at this time.