GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Bellin Health Officials say you shouldn’t expect to see maskless faces in hospital corridors anytime soon, despite recent changes to CDC guidelines about masks in hospitals in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bellin Health Infection Prevention Specialist Andi Hume says the new guidelines won’t result any changes that visitors will notice.
“When we’re in areas where transmission levels are high, but community levels are medium to low, our staff will be able to take off their masks in conference rooms and break rooms,” Hume told WTAQ.
Currently, transmission rates are still high while community rates are low in Brown County.
Hume says it will be a “significant” amount of time before you’ll see large scale masklessness in hospitals outside of isolation rooms and surgery bays.
“We’re going to see masks in healthcare for the foreseeable future,” Hume said. “Especially right now as we come up on flu season…we won’t see masks go away across the board until we get those transmission rates below high.”
Hume says staff have largely adjusted to wearing masks at work.
