Two Colorado hospitals are dropping their mask requirements after roughly three years of forcing individuals to mask up.
DenverHealth announced this month that it will finally end its mask mandate, which has been in place for nearly three years, originally going into effect March 2020.
That all changes Wednesday, March 1, as “asymptomatic patients, visitors and vaccinated staff at all Denver Health facilities may choose to mask but are no longer required to do so,” according to the hospital, which said the decision is “aligned with other peer health care institutions in the Denver metro area.”
However, the update states those with respiratory symptoms, as well as unvaccinated staff members, will still be required to wear masks in the facilities.
“We ask all patients, visitors and employees to please be welcoming and respectful of anyone who decides to mask out of personal preference, individual risk factors or as required for illness symptoms,” the update adds, urging individuals to get vaccinated and boosted while also leaving the door open to universal mask mandates in the future.
A recent update to the W.H.O. guidelines for dealing with the coronavirus includes a recommendation to use fabric face masks only when “physical distancing of at least 1 meter is not possible,” and for only high-risk groups to use medical-grade masks. https://t.co/ygoE9CQaoh
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) November 7, 2020
Similarly, UCHealth is also ending its universal mask mandate after years.
“We feel the time is right to make this change because UCHealth hospitals, along with the state of Colorado, have seen substantial decreases in COVID-19 cases, and influenza cases have also fallen,” UCHealth said.
Similar to DenverHealth, UCHealth is also encouraging “anyone experiencing cold, flu or other respiratory symptoms or who is not fully vaccinated to continue wearing” a mask.
The end of the mandates come roughly three years after the start of the pandemic and well over two years into President Joe Biden’s presidency.
Notably, Biden originally pitched “just” 100 days of masking prior to taking office but far exceeded that. Further, the masking requirement for air travel only ended after a Trump-appointed federal judge deemed it illegal. Despite that, Biden’s administration is still fighting for the ability to resurrect the rules.
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