Anyone heading to a London-area hospital is once again being asked to mask up.
The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC), St. Joseph’s Health Care London, and the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital are all reintroducing some form of mandatory masking.
“The fall respiratory season is upon us, and as we expected, it’s time for a renewed approach,” Dr. Kevin Chan, corporate medical executive at LHSC, said in a statement. “Changes to our masking guidelines are aligned with recommendations through Public Health Ontario, and our regional hospital partners, to help ensure staff, physicians, volunteers, patients, visitors and our community remain protected while respiratory viruses circulate this fall and winter.”
Starting Wednesday, patients and visitors will have to wear a face covering in all clinical areas, waiting rooms, and when speaking directly with a healthcare worker at the St. Thomas Elgin General Hospital. At London's hospitals, it is currently only being recommended that patients and visitors wear a mask in those settings. Masking is mandatory for patients with a fever or respiratory symptoms at all three hospital networks, unless in an inpatient room or bed space.
For all hospital staff and physicians, masks will be required when in direct contact with patients in both inpatient and outpatient clinical settings, including waiting rooms, emergency departments and urgent care centres. In all common spaces including work stations, hallways, break rooms, cafeterias, auditoriums, communication desks, and laboratories, masks are recommended, but not mandatory.
Face coverings will be available at all hospital entrances. There will also be sanitizer for people entering the hospital to sanitize their hands.
Hospitals across the province eased masking requirements in April as the number of COVID-19, cold, and flu cases decreased. Their reintroduction comes as circulation of the respiratory illnesses begins to pick back up.
