Cape Fear Valley Health relaxes masking rules for patients, visitors and staff
Masks will no longer be required for most people and staff at Cape Fear Valley facilities in Cumberland, Hoke and Bladen counties. There are certain situations where masks will still be required.
Citing improvements in local health statistics, Cape Fear Valley Health is rescinding its requirements for when patients, visitors and staff must wear face masks to reduce the spread of infectious disease.
Mask rules haven’t been phased out entirely, but they’re no longer routinely required for most patients, visitors and staff, the health system said in a news release Wednesday.
“The health system continues to affirm that masks are an effective tool in combating the spread of respiratory diseases and other airborne viruses, therefore, surgical masks, KN-95 or N-95 masks are authorized in all areas that staff, visitors or patients choose to wear one,” he says.
Cape Fear Valley Health has hospitals and health care facilities in and around Fayetteville and Cumberland County, as well as Hoke and Bladen counties.
When will masks still be mandatory?
Here are the remaining circumstances in which masks are mandatory from Friday:
- Breathing illness. Patients with respiratory symptoms as well as the staff caring for them and their visitors will be required to wear a mask.
- Immunocompromised Patients and the Cancer Center. Immunocompromised patients, whether at the Cancer Center or throughout the facility, as well as the staff caring for them and their visitors, will be required to wear a mask.
- Waiting room and emergency triage. Patients, visitors and staff in the waiting rooms of an emergency department or ExpressCare, as well as the triage areas of these units, will be required to wear at least one surgical mask. Masks will no longer be required for ER or ExpressCare patients once they are placed in a room and assessed as not requiring mask precautions.
- Intensive care units. Mask wearing will still be required for patients, staff and visitors in all intensive care units due to the very vulnerable nature of these patients.
- Unvaccinated employees. Staff who have been exempted from the health system’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement and are still unvaccinated should use an N-95 mask or better.
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