3 Local Monmouth Ocean County Hospitals Bring Back Face Mask Mandates
A new COVID-19 variant is driving an increase in COVID-19 infections in New Jersey and now three hospitals in Monmouth and Ocean counties have reintroduced face mask mandates for patients and visitors. The three local Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals that are requiring face masks are Riverview Medical Center in Red Bank, Ocean University Medical Center in Brick, and Southern Ocean Medical Center in Stafford.
New Jersey’s largest healthcare system — RWJ/Barnabas Health — urges patients and visitors to wear masks, although compliance is voluntary.
New Jersey is experiencing a rise in new cases and an increase in fatalities due to COVID-19. According to the state’s records, available here, there were 558 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the state on 9/26/23. There were 536 on 9/19/23 and 475 on 9/12/23.
The new COVID-19 variant XBB1.5, has yet to shown any signs that it is more dangerous than other variants of COVID-19, according to the World Health Organization.
The return of face mask mandates at three local hospitals comes as a new vaccine recently became available. Information on that vaccine’s local availability can be found here.
Governor Murphy lifted the public health emergency on March 4, 2022. The governor has not weighed in on the recent face mask requirement at local hospitals however he has not supported the return of face mask mandates publicly. Face masks were a political and social lightning rod.
It’s not hard to imagine the enormous outcry from the general public should public health policy makers deem it necessary to wear face masks again. We’ve been enjoying going out to concerts and fundraisers and church and basically enjoying our public freedoms so much; people would lose their collective minds if that goes down.
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