Staff and visitors will be required to mask up at Santa Rosa (Calif.) Medical Center amid a COVID-19 outbreak that has infected more than a dozen hospital workers and patients, The San Francisco Chronicle reported April 20.
About 3,500 employees work at the facility.
“In response, effective immediately, physicians and staff are required to mask in the Santa Rosa Hospital and emergency department while providing direct patient care,” the hospital said in a statement, according to The Press Democrat. The same rules apply to visitors while inside the hospital.
The temporary mask mandate at Santa Rosa Medical Center comes weeks after the state lifted its COVID-19 masking requirements in healthcare settings.
The hospital is part of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente.
Dozens of U.S. hospitals and health systems have sunset universal masking rules in recent weeks. In September, the CDC loosened masking recommendations for healthcare workers, saying facilities in areas without high transmission can decide whether to require them.
