Alberta Health Services removes mask mandate in facilities

Alberta Health Services (AHS) announced Thursday it has removed continuous masking requirements it its facilities, effective this coming Monday.

This applies to all patients, families, and visitors at AHS facilities as well as Alberta Precision Laboratories, Covenant Health, Capital Care and Carewest sites, AHS said in a release.

It adds that the change also applies to all AHS and contracted staff, including physicians, midwives, students, volunteers and contractors.

AHS says the decision to remove the continuous masking requirement was made based on a “number of factors” which included declining COVID-19 cases, testing positivity rate, wastewater data and hospital admission rates for respiratory illnesses in Alberta.

Consultation with stakeholders including patients, families, advisory councils, clinicians and frontline managers was also part of the decision, it added.

AHS says it “continues to respect the choice to voluntarily wear mask in all areas” and “encourages those who want to wear a mask to continue to wear one.

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Dr. Daniel Gregson, an associate professor of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology at the University of Calgary, told CityNews this follows trends in other provinces.

“Like most recently, Saskatchewan and B.C. did it in April. And we know we haven’t really seen major issues in those jurisdictions. And at some point in time, we had to drop them,” he explained. “We can’t be wearing masks forever. So it’s probably a reasonable time to do this, as the summer season comes and the amount of transmission we see in the community decreases.”

“People like myself picked up their COVID, not in a hospital but in a restaurant or from a family member.”

Patients are also encouraged to have conversations with their care providers about masking, hand hygiene and other factors which patients feel are important to their care.

AHS adds it continues to encourage visitors and family members who have had respiratory symptoms to wait to visit loved ones until 10 days after their symptoms start, and all visitors and support people are recommended to mask when visiting symptomatic patients or residents.

Staff are required to continue to use the Infection Prevention and Control Risk Assessment to make personal protective equipment (PPE) decisions and AHS Routine Practices to prevent the spread of infections. says the health authority.

AHS said in a release that appropriate types of masks and PPE will continue to be available in all settings for patients and healthcare workers.

It adds that staff are encouraged to stay home when sick and to continue to practice good hand hygiene.

-With files from Henna Saeed