Inside hospitals, visitors & staffers ditch masks; experts warn of spread to patients – ET HealthWorld

Recently, the US CDC, while revising mask guidelines, said “regardless of a community’s status, local healthcare settings should continue to require visitors to wear masks indoors”.

Dr Sanjay Pujari, a member of the ICMR’s Covid Task Force, said masking needs to continue in healthcare settings for multiple reasons.

“First, there has been a rise in cases over the last four weeks. Some patients will visit hospitals to access care, even for mild illness.”

Second, he said, new variants such as Omicron’s B2.38 can make up 30% of a community’s caseload. “And properties of these subvariants, in terms of severity and enhanced transmissibility, are still unclear,” he said.

Then there’s the number of asymptomatic patients turning out to be incidental detections, which makes testing mandatory. “So, hospitals should be high-risk settings, especially when cases are up,” Dr Pujari said.

The fourth reason for mandatory masking is preventing spread from visitors to admitted patients likely to develop severe Covid, like the elderly, people with medical conditions and immunosuppressed individuals.

Dr Rahul Pandit, member of the state Covid task force, said the panel had never recommended not wearing a mask. “Especially in a clinical setting, masks should continue,” he said.

Dr Dhananjay Kelkar, medical director of the Deenanath Mangeshkar hospital, said, “Not every visitor needs to wear a mask on hospital premises. Visitors who are immunocompromised or those with underlying conditions should wear masks to protect themselves. Most of the population is now vaccinated and transmission has significantly reduced. So strict compliance of the mask rule on hospital premises, for every visitor, is no longer needed.”

Vinod Sawantwadkar, CEO of Jehangir Hospital, said they have once again tightened the mask rule. “We had relaxed it. But now, we’re asking all visitors and staff to mask up,” he said.