Despite Alberta Health Services executing stricter regulations for mask usage in acute care facilities, some doctors believe the initiative doesn’t suffice and induces confusion. To curtail COVID-19’s spread, the directive was unfurled yesterday, leaving zone and site leaders to decide its practical implementation.
Thus far, none of the acute care facilities in the province has adopted the directive into their healthcare routines. Dr. Gosia Gasperowicz, a developmental biologist, opined that a universal masking policy ought to be enforced, not only within healthcare settings but also in schools, public transit, and public spaces. “We have COVID circulating, we have influenza circulating,” she pointed out.
The data on Alberta Health’s revamped respiratory virus dashboard discloses that between October 1st and October 7th, 857 cases of COVID-19 and 37 cases of influenza were confirmed. During the identical period, 145 hospital admissions due to COVID-19 were logged, out of which seven were ICU cases.
Dr. Paul Parks, President of the Alberta Medical Association, while simultaneously practicing as an emergency physician, remarks on the noticeable upswing in respiratory illness and hospital admissions due to COVID-19. He validates the regional decision-making regarding mask mandates, recognizing that varying regions grapple with distinct issues. Yet, he observes, the regional approach creates ambiguity in terms of enforcing the directive.
“As an active emergency physician in my hospital right now, I’m not entirely sure what the precise policy is,” Dr. Parks confided. Despite this uncertainty, here’s a certainty: once the mask mandate is executed by any region, signage will be imaginably posted at hospital entryways.
