The CDC said it still recommends universal masking in healthcare settings, and its new guidelines do not apply to hospitals, which are often considered high risk.
Any future masking guidelines for hospitals will hopefully take into account how easily implementable the recommendations are, and will not involve relying on everyone’s vaccination status, said Tammy Lundstrom, chief medical officer and senior vice president of Trinity Health.
Generally speaking, the pandemic is expected to become more of a local issue versus a global surging issue, she said, which is why it’s crucial that the CDC has redefined low, medium and high rates of transmission and recommended prevention measures for each of these levels.
“I’m welcoming the change to really look at the impact of severe illness on hospitalizations versus new cases, because we learned a lot since omicron started, and new cases are not as translatable into hospitalizations as they were with alpha or delta,” Lundstrom said.
Other providers are still hesitant about the broad guidance to unmask.
“I do have concerns considering where we are across the country right now with COVID-19,” said Richard Martinello, medical director for infection prevention at the Yale New Haven Health System. “We’re still seeing high rates in most of our communities, we’re still seeing a significant number of Americans dying each day due to COVID-19.”
Masks, while not perfect at preventing COVID transmission, are one of the easiest and most adequate measures to keep people safe from infection, he said.