Hospital System Implements Mask Mandate Across Illinois

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It comes as facilities in several other states have imposed mandates this winter season.

A hospital system in Illinois this week issued a mandate that everyone entering its facilities must wear a mask due to “widespread respiratory illnesses” in the area.

“Starting Tuesday, December 31, all employees, patients and visitors at our hospitals are required to wear masks due to the widespread respiratory illnesses in our communities, including COVID-19, influenza and RSV,” said OSF Saint Francis Medical Center, based in Peoria, Illinois, in a statement posted on Facebook.

“Additionally, we are implementing a temporary visitor restriction: only two visitors (age 18+) per patient at a time. Thank you for your cooperation in keeping our community safe.”

It comes as Rush University Medical Center, based in Chicago, said in a statement that starting on Dec. 2, it will require “patients and visitors to wear hospital-approved masks when they are in clinical offices, waiting areas and patient registration.”

“The policy coincides with the respiratory virus season, when the spread of flu, RSV, and COVID-19 rises,” it wrote.

New Jersey Hospital Appears to Mandate Masks

The largest hospital system in New Jersey, RWJ Barnabas Health, said in December that visitors and patients in its facilities “are expected” to wear a face mask. Masking is also being “strongly encouraged” for staff and visitors at the company’s outpatient and medical group facilities in the state, according to a statement released in mid-December.

“Wear an appropriate face mask. We will offer you a new mask for source control or may ask you to replace your own mask with a hospital-supplied mask,” the hospital said to patients and visitors.

For outpatient and medical group buildings, “masking is strongly encouraged for all providers, staff, patients, visitors and vendors at all times in the presence of patients,” it said.

RWJ Barnabas added that “masking is REQUIRED for all patients who present with respiratory symptoms, as well as all staff members and providers caring for them.”

New York State Issues Mandate

As of mid-December, New York state health care workers who have not received an influenza vaccine have to wear masks when working in places where residents or patients are present in facilities.

In a Dec. 18 statement, New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald declared that the “flu is prevalent across the State means healthcare personnel who are not vaccinated against the flu this season need to take extra precautions and wear a mask in healthcare facilities to avoid exposing sick patients and those most vulnerable to complications of the virus.”

His declaration on requiring masking did not mention COVID-19, only influenza. During the COVID-19 pandemic, state and local governments, as well as private businesses, required masks due to the virus.

California Counties Mandate Masks

Starting in November, multiple counties in California’s Bay Area required masks for staff working at hospitals and health care facilities. The mandate will end on March 31 of this year.

Counties with mask requirements for employees include San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, Santa Clara, Napa, and San Mateo. But Santa Clara County, which includes San Jose, and San Mateo County also require visitors and patients in those health care facilities to wear masks, according to an earlier review from The Epoch Times.

Aside from the county mandates, a hospital system in Monterey reinstated a mandate for patients, visitors, and staff around the same time.

Respiratory Virus Numbers Rising

Late last week, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that cases of respiratory illnesses associated with RSV, influenza, and COVID-19 are increasing across the country.

Emergency department visits for RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, are still high, the CDC said in a statement. Flu-related emergency department visits are at moderate levels, the agency said.

COVID-19 activity is also “increasing in most areas of the country, with high COVID-19 wastewater levels and increasing emergency department visits and laboratory percent positivity,” the agency added.