Bryan Health, other health systems to drop masking requirements

LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) - Several Nebraska Nebraska health systems, including Bryan Health, plan to drop indoor masking requirements at their facilities.

The joint announcement included Boys Town, Bryan Health, CHI Health, Children’s Hospital & Medical Center, Madonna, Methodist Health System and Nebraska Medicine.

Masking requirements will come to an end at those locations Monday, April 3. Patients and visitors will still have the option of wearing a face covering. CHI Health lifted masking policies March 20.

In the release, the health systems acknowledged the landscape had changed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: “The virus causing COVID-19 and the treatment of patients experiencing complications from prior COVID-19 infection are still with us and likely will remain so for the foreseeable future. However, we are now in a much different place.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is expected to end the Public Health Emergency for COVID-19 May 11.

“We know more and we have vaccines that are extremely safe and effective in preventing serious disease and death,” the joint announcement read. “We now have oral medications that help prevent progression of disease. We are better suited to treat patients with COVID-19 and they are consuming less intensive care resources. We are also experiencing less employee absenteeism due to COVID-19 infection.”

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