Continuous mask mandate to be lifted in Alberta hospitals

Continuous masking will no longer be required in Alberta hospitals, treatment centres and long-term care facilities starting next week. 

Alberta Health Services (AHS) announced Thursday it will drop the masking requirement for staff, patients and visitors in all its hospitals and contracted sites. The change is set to go into effect Monday. 

The dropping of one of the last remaining COVID-19 restrictions in the province comes weeks after AHS made mask wearing optional for health care workers when in areas not accessible to patients. 

Heather Smith, president of the United Nurses of Alberta, said nurses in the union expected the continuous masking restrictions to be lifted, anticipating it would likely happen sometime after the provincial election. 

Declining COVID hospitalizations in the province were part of the reason the requirements were lifted, AHS said in a statement. Other factors included declining hospital admission rates for respiratory illness, wastewater data and testing positivity rate. 

Health-care workers, patients and visitors will be allowed to wear masks in hospitals and long-term care facilities should they choose, the agency said. Still, health-care workers will still be expected to wear a mask if a patient requests it, as outlined in AHS guidelines. 

According to Smith, some health-care workers have begun to experience "mask fatigue" after three years of pandemic restrictions. 

"For some, I think that there is a level of fatigue and they welcome [the change], particularly if their point of care assessment would say they are not at risk and their patients are not at risk," she said. 

Other provinces, such as British Columbia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, have also lifted certain masking requirements in health-care facilities in recent months. Meanwhile, in Quebec and Ontario, masking rules have been left to individual hospitals. While masking directives have been lifted across Canada, COVID-19 is still spreading. Some health-care officials have said that should the situation worsen significantly come fall or winter, it could be reasonable to bring back masking mandates.

Natalie Kwadrans, who is battling terminal breast cancer, has a treatment appointment scheduled for Monday at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre in Calgary. 

"I'm feeling a little nervous," she said. "I believe that is Day 1 of unmasked cancer centres and unmaksed hospital settings. So, I'm a little nervous."

Kwadrans said she doesn't think the masking requirements should be lifted in a medical setting, as it could put immunocompromised people, such as herself, at risk. 

While she said she won't skip her appointment Monday, she's approaching it with trepidation. 

"The flip side is I stay home and do nothing and let my cancer kill me," Kwadrans said. "So … you know, what do I do?"