UPMC to begin requiring face masks due to rising RSV, flu, COVID cases – PennLive

UPMC will begin requiring all employees, patients and visitors to wear face masks beginning Dec. 20, which is next Wednesday.

UPMC is seeing an increase in cases of respiratory viruses, including COVID, influenza and RSV, UPMC said Thursday in a written statement.

The requirement applies to all UPMC facilities including hospitals, outpatient facilities and medical offices.

It puts UPMC among a growing number of health systems that have announced masking requirements since the start of fall, when flu and other respiratory illnesses become more prevalent.

As of late November, at least 28 health systems around the country had announced mask requirements, according to Beckers Hospital Review, which covers the healthcare industry. They included Reading Hospital and Mount Nittany Medical Center in Pennsylvania, and the nationally prominent Cleveland Clinic.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, health systems imposed far-ranging masking requirements, keeping them in place until this past May, when the federal COVID-19 emergency ended.

Many, including UPMC, continued to require masks in areas and facilities that care for people who had weakened immune systems or were otherwise highly vulnerable to infections.

In early fall, PennLive contacted central Pennsylvania healthcare systems regarding the possibility of future universal masking requirements, with most saying they were tracking the level of illnesses and would make future masking decisions based on that.

Pennsylvania is presently seeing a steep climb in RVS cases, with flu cases and COVID-19 hospitalizations also on the rise, according to the latest tracking by the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Contrary to widespread belief, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesnt impose national mask mandates. Rather, it makes recommendations, and is presently telling hospitals to consider masking requirements when local spread of respiratory infections becomes high. Federal facilities are required to follow CDC recommendations.

Read the rest here:

UPMC to begin requiring face masks due to rising RSV, flu, COVID cases - PennLive