Masks now required for patients, visitors at 4 Edmonton hospitals

Alberta Health Services has put in new requirements for masking to prevent the transmission of respiratory viruses. CTV News Edmonton's Evan Kenny reports.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) has instituted a masking requirement for four hospitals in the Edmonton area.

An enhanced masking directive is in place at Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital, Royal Alexandra Hospital, Stollery Children’s Hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital.

This means all patients, designated support persons and visitors must wear a mask in the emergency departments of the above acute care facilities. There are signs at the front entrance of each location signalling where enhanced masking is happening, AHS says.

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According to information available on the AHS website, a masking directive is based on factors including “number, size and impact of outbreaks, new hospitalizations with respiratory viruses, occupancy, test positivity and situational context.”

In a statement to CTV News Edmonton, AHS didn’t confirm the exact reasons for implementing the directive but did say the goal was to “prevent the transmission of respiratory viruses.”

Cases of the flu have been rising across Alberta. Provincial data from between Dec. 7 and 13 shows more than 2,700 documented cases of respiratory illness – 2,314 of those cases being influenza. The brunt of influenza infections were attributed to the H3N2 virus.

Last week, Alberta government officials hosted a media conference urging residents to get their flu shot amid higher emergency room numbers.

The province has implemented surge protocols for flu season, which include an increase in hospital beds designated for those coming in with respiratory illnesses.

Clinical pharmacist Mauli Patel said a mask directive in hospitals is one of the simpler ways to prevent outbreaks this flu season.

“These kinds of flu viruses, they easily spread through spit or whenever somebody has a coughing bout and their mucus is sticking somewhere … If you carry some sickness at the hospital, (people) can get even more sick, or vice versa,” she said in an interview Tuesday.

“You can get sick from those sick people and then come home and get in the community and spread it on. It works both ways.”

Outside of masking, Patel recommends hand-washing, covering your cough and getting a flu shot.

“Our public health has good coverage for other respiratory virus vaccines too, like pneumonia, RSV, just try to get those,” she added. “As a community pharmacist, we can check their immunization history … and tell them, ‘Hey, I don’t see any records of your pneumonia shots. Are you okay getting it?’”

There have been 5,996 cases of influenza reported so far this season.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Evan Kenny