As hospital mask mandates expire, experts ‘concerned’
The executive order mandating masks in Connecticut health care facilities expired Friday, leaving some public health experts “concerned” amid rising COVID rates.
The order, extended in January, required masking in hospitals, outpatient health care settings and some congregant settings such as homeless shelters.
Simultaneously, statewide COVID rates have been on a slow if steady incline.
“Our trajectory is not good. That makes me all very uneasy as masks are coming off,” said Scott Roberts, associate medical director of infection prevention at Yale New Haven Hospital. “Now is not the time to rescind mask mandates.”
The state reported Monday that 4,280 new COVID cases had been identified over the previous seven days out of 64,592 tests for a positivity rate of 6.63 percent. COVIDrealted hospitalizations increased 41 over the same time period to 145 statewide.
The University of Connecticut announced this weekend that students and staff would be required to wear masks in school settings, citing a “substantial rise in COVID-19 positivity rates both in the state of Connecticut and on UConn's Storrs campus and the potential risk this poses to the remainder of the in-person semester and commencement.”
Gov. Ned Lamont, speaking Monday at an event in Bridgeport, said while he “understands” the step UConn is taking, he does not think broader mandates are necessary, either for the state or Connecticut's cities and towns.
“I think the municipalities know their constituents really well, know what they need to do to make them feel safe and be safe. We'll leave that discretion up to them,” Lamont said. “I understand what UConn is doing and it makes all the sense in the world. A lot of those kids live in very tight congregate settings.”
When asked if Connecticut towns should follow the example of Philadelphia, which announced earlier this month that a city-wide mask mandate would be reinstated, Lamont said no.
“I think it's their judgment what makes people comfortable. For me, we're outside, it's springtime, we're boostered,” he said. “I think people know how to keep themselves safe, that's good enough for me.”
Setting makes the difference, according to Dr. Ulysses Wu, Hartford HealthCare's chief epidemiologist
“In a private bubble such as a college it kind of makes sense,” he said. “It's kind of a bubble community.”
Wu said organizations and businesses in where people live, eat, work and recreate in close quarters should consider mandating masks.
“I do believe there are businesses that could benefit from that,” he said. “Even churches. Where people are going to be clustered, it would kind of make sense.”
In mandating masks, UConn joined other colleges and universities in the northeast, including
Johns Hopkins University in Maryland.
“UConn is doing what I think many places should be doing,” Roberts said.
Yale New Haven Health requires masks in clinical settings, though Yale University has not followed suit, Roberts said. Hartford HealthCare also requires masks.
The Friday expiration of the executive order mandating masks in clinical settings could mean a lack of uniformity among health care settings, Roberts said.
“We have heard that other health care facilities have been similarly frustrated,” he said.
“I think we're going to see increased cases over the next couple of weeks,” Roberts said, though he believes it “won't be nearly as bad as it was over the holidays.”
We said cases may rise further, in part because of BA.2, the more infectious omicron subvariant, but also because of family gatherings for Easter and Passover.
“I'm curious to see in about seven days what the case positivity is,” he said.