With COVID-19 outbreak numbers on the rise in Alberta acute care settings, Alberta Health Services now has a directive in place to allow for masking requirements in hospitals to prevent the spread of the virus.
The new directive, which came into effect on Wednesday, allows health zone leadership to require enhanced masking for AHS staff, health-care workers and volunteers in acute care facilities. When that enhanced masking is put into place, it would also require patients, support workers and families visiting emergency departments to mask.
“Decisions to implement enhanced masking will be based on several factors which consider rate of hospitalizations, number of outbreaks, occupancy, test positivity and situational context,” AHS said in a press release.
Masking requirements for workers, family and visitors remain in place when recommended during an outbreak by the communicable disease control outbreak guides, for staff five days after testing positive for COVID-19, or when in contact with severely immunocompromised people.
Aerosol scientists have said respirators with certifications like N95, KN95 of KF94 are very effective at preventing people from inhaling things like wildfire smoke and airborne viruses, when used correctly.
AHS’ announcement comes after COVID outbreaks in acute care settings in Alberta have exhibited exponential growth in the past few weeks.
Provincewide, on Sept. 19 there were 129 patients in units listed in an outbreak. On Oct. 10, that number more than doubled to 296.
The latest outbreak data showed there were 38 units provincewide on outbreak, with 110 health-care workers as part of those outbreaks. On Sept. 19, there were half as many health-care workers who tested positive and only 22 units under outbreak.
An outbreak is declared when one or more people catch the airborne virus while in hospital.
Hospitals and acute care in the Edmonton and Central zones have shown an increasing upward curve of patients under outbreak in recent weeks.
Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra Hospital has seen its units under outbreak jump from just one unit with three patients on Sept. 18 to 12 units – including 68 patients and 41 health-care workers – experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak on Oct. 10. No other hospital in Alberta is experiencing the same outbreak numbers.
An AHS spokesperson said the directive had just been communicated to all hospitals on Wednesday afternoon.
Alberta hospitals have also seen 552 people admitted to hospital either directly resulting from COVID-19, or when COVID is a contributing factor for the admission since the start of the respiratory virus season on Aug. 27. Between Sept. 23 to Sept. 30, 152 more Albertans were hospitalized.
The province’s respiratory virus dashboard is expected to be updated on Thursday.
AHS’ new directive comes after the health ministry’s decentralization of decision making on masking.
“Our government wants to empower local decision making and this may mean that in the future individuals operators make decisions based on individual circumstances,” Charlotte Taillon, Health Minister Adriana LaGrange’s press secretary, said in a statement to Global News on Sept. 29.