Impact of masking policy on healthcare-associated acute respiratory infections in 18 hospitals in Southern Ontario

2026/01/01 by Thomas Scheier, Anne Bialachowski, Michael Silverman +8 · 1 voice
Medicine · #Infection Control and Ventilation #Infection Control in Healthcare #Respiratory viral infections research

paper · doi:10.1017/ash.2026.10423

openalex publication_date 2026/01/01 · openalex created_date 2026/06/02 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/06

Abstract

Whether continuous masking prevents healthcare-associated acute respiratory infections (HA-ARI) remains uncertain. We demonstrate that discontinuing continuous masking policies in 18 acute care facilities in Ontario was not associated with an increase in the incidence of HA-ARIs in hospitalized patients, or with ARI outbreak activity over two consecutive ARI seasons.

Citations

• Modeling the impact of health care worker masking to reduce nosocomial SARS-CoV-2 transmission under varying adherence, prevalence, and transmission settings.

Discussions

• Authors demonstrate that discontinuing continuous masking policies in 18 acute care facilities in Ontario was not associated with an increase in the incidence of HA-ARIs in hospitalized patients, or w [bsky, 0 points, 0 comments]

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