Masks coming off in health settings

Wednesday 01 June 2022

Visitors and staff will no longer be required to wear face masks in health and social care settings from tomorrow.

At the same time, the use of personal protection equipment (PPE) in those settings will revert to pre-pandemic levels.

Certain areas of the health service - such as Accident and Emergency at the Princess Elizabeth Hospital and community care teams - will continue to undertake clinical triage risk assessments based on the individual circumstances of patients and service users.

Anyone is free to continue to wear a face covering if they wish. However, the emphasis will be on everyone adopting good hand hygiene when visiting the Hospital and staying away if they have symptoms of covid-19 or any other infectious disease.

Pictured: From Thursday, masks will be welcome but not mandatory in health and social care settings. 

The Committee for Health & Social Care said the new arrangements were possible because of the low number of covid-19 cases in the island. 

There are currently no cases of covid-19 in the hospital.

And confidence is high about keeping case numbers low in the weeks ahead during summer weather and with high rates of vaccination among the population. 

The latest testing figures, which were released by the States yesterday, included 202 known active cases of covid-19. Over the past week, there have been 104 new cases identified and 284 people have recovered.

"We will continue to keep the use of masks under review, especially later in the year when we experience winter pressures," said the Committee.