Beverly Hospital To Drop COVID-19 Mask Requirement

BEVERLY, MA — Patients, visitors and employees will no longer have to mask up in Beverly Hospital and affiliated medical facilities beginning next week when the COVID-19 public health emergency is allowed to expire after more than three years.

While masks have been largely optional in most public buildings since the end of the Massachusetts state of emergency on May 29, 2021, and as school mask requirements were lifted in February 2022, medical facilities were one area where they remained mandatory.

Facilities will have the option to create their own individual policies beginning with the expiration of the public health emergency on Thursday with Beth Israel Leahy Health saying that Beverly Hospital will drop its mandatory policy.

"With the end of the public health emergency and the Department of Public Health's masking requirements in healthcare settings, we are updating Beth Israel Lahey Health's policies
and will no longer require universal masking in our facilities, beginning May 12," Beth Israel Lahey Health Chief Infection Prevention Officer Sharon Wright said in a statement to Patch on Friday. "Universal masking was one of many interventions that we used throughout the pandemic to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and it was very effective given the conditions at that time.

"Today, the number of COVID-19 cases has declined significantly, and the impact of infection has lessened due to improved access to testing, development of substantial immunity through vaccination, and availability of effective medical therapies.

"Given these changing circumstances, we are in a safer place to end universal masking at this time."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)