Mask rules are changing at Ontario hospitals. Here’s where you will still have to mask up

Ontario hospitals are easing their mask policies for COVID-19, with some dropping mandatory masking in parts of their facility, including waiting rooms and emergency departments.

But in Toronto, some of the biggest hospitals will continue to require masks in all areas where patients may be present. University Health Network, Unity Health Toronto, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, the Hospital for Sick Children and Trillium Health Partners in Mississauga confirmed to the Star that masks must be worn in any such areas.

These hospitals are keeping mandatory masking in the clinical areas of their sites, including in-patient units and outpatient clinics, and in common places such as lobbies, elevators and hallways. Masks are still required when entering and must be worn in any area where patients are treated or where patients and their caregivers gather. However, starting this month, some hospitals are loosening masking rules in staff-only spaces.

The Toronto hospitals told the Star masking requirements were recently updated following recommendations from the province and the Toronto Region Hospital Operations Table.

“There is no change to our masking policy for patients and visitors,” said Dr. Jerome Leis, Sunnybrook’s medical director of infection prevention and control, in an email to the Star.

“Under additional guidance from the province and the Toronto Region COVID-19 Hospital Operations Table, Sunnybrook is relaxing universal masking for staff-only areas. Wearing a mask is still required while moving throughout the hospital, and in areas where staff would come into contact with patients and visitors.

“This is to continue to protect the most vulnerable from COVID-related complications.”

Hamilton, Kitchener and Guelph

In other parts of the province, hospitals are relaxing the rules more generally, removing mask requirements altogether except for in some circumstances, though masking continues to be encouraged.

Beginning Wednesday, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and Hamilton Health Sciences, which includes McMaster Children’s Hospital, will no longer require patients, families and visitors to wear masks inside their hospital sites.

Health-care workers there will mask up when caring for patients, and patients with fevers or respiratory symptoms are required to wear one as well. People are “encouraged to wear a mask while in waiting rooms, and in emergency departments and urgent care centres,” Hamilton Health Sciences said in a media release.

Mask rules have also changed at hospitals in southwestern Ontario, in Kitchener hospitals and at Guelph General Hospital. For example, St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener has adopted a “mask-friendly policy” as of April 17, meaning staff, patients and visitors no longer have to wear masks in most clinical areas or in hallways, meetings and shared offices.

SickKids

Starting April 24, masks won’t be required at SickKids in “nonclinical and non-patient facing areas” of the hospital, including administrative offices and meeting spaces, or at off-site events or off-site areas, such as the Peter Gilgan Centre for Research and Learning, spokesperson Sarah Warr said in an email to the Star.

She noted masks remain mandatory in clinical areas and common spaces where patients may be present and that updated mask requirements follow recommendations that are “based on a moderate level of COVID-19 transmission risk and a non-high risk period for respiratory virus transmission.”

“As the pandemic situation and respiratory illness trends continue to evolve, we will make adjustments to safety practices based on the best available evidence and guidance,” Warr said.

University Health Network

In a statement from its Infection Prevention and Control Department, UHN said masks are required in all clinical areas, such as in-patient units and in clinics offering outpatient procedures and therapies, and within hospital common areas. Masks can be removed in nonclinical spaces but these areas “will remain mask-friendly,” the statement said.

UHN, which includes Canada’s largest transplant program, informed staff Tuesday of the new masking rules, which recommend — but no longer require — masks in its nonclinical areas, including its finance departments, research areas, corporate offices and meeting and conference rooms.

Unity Health Toronto

At Unity Health Toronto, which includes St. Michael’s Hospital and St. Joseph’s Health Centre, masking is universally required in all clinic and “patient-facing areas,” said spokesperson Hayley Mick in an email, noting there are recent changes to masking rules for staff and physicians in nonclinical areas.

“This masking policy reflects current COVID-19 epidemiology and aims to achieve consistency with current public health requirements and regional hospital guidance.”

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