California hospital return to masking as COVID surges

UC San Diego Health became the first major local medical provider to reinstate masking requirements for employees as the county added free coronavirus testing Thursday, responding to a summer COVID-19 surge that started building steam in June.

Updates to local tracking information arrived Thursday with the amount of the virus detected in local wastewater and the percentage of positive tests performed by health care organizations on the rise. According to the county’s update, 15.3 percent of test results reported on July 6 were positive, nearly double the 8.1 percent positive reported on June 8.

Local results mirror a nationwide uptick, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says has pushed the nationwide test positivity rate to 9 percent. The increase is driven by KP.2 and KP.3, two new, more infectious coronavirus variants, which made up more than 60 percent of virus detected in San Diego County in the most recent analysis published by SEARCH, a coalition of local research labs.

The trend, said Dr. Erik Berg, a county public health consultant, looks similar to those that have occurred during previous summers as new virus variants circulate among a vacationing population.

“We’re not seeing any indications that this is putting a strain on health care resources or that we’re seeing a dramatic increase in mortality,” Berg said. “The main message is: If you’re at high risk for severe disease, get vaccinated and, if you’re experiencing respiratory symptoms or a fever, stay home from work to avoid exposing others.”

COVID risk increases with age and with the presence of certain medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, chronic lung disease, obesity and chronic kidney disease. Pregnant women, those who have recently given birth, and anyone such as organ transplant recipients taking immune system-suppressing drugs are also at a higher risk of severe symptoms, according to the CDC.

UC San Diego Health, looking at its own numbers, took additional action, moving up a tier in its existing COVID response plan and reinstating requirements for its employees, whether they work in one of its three hospitals or in an outpatient setting, to start wearing masks when working face-to-face with patients. Masks are not required for non-hospital employees nor for workers not delivering care. The change will be in effect for two weeks, at which point a decision will be made, based on several different measures of viral activity, about whether to increase or decrease infection-prevention measures.

Dr. Christopher Longhurst, medical director at UC San Diego Health, said Thursday that infection and hospitalization trends drove the decision to bring masks partway back. Thursday morning, he said, university hospitals collectively held 30 patients with coronavirus infections compared to about 10 last week.

“In the last week of May, we averaged 15 employees per day off for COVID; by the first week of June, we were up to 20; by the fourth week of June, we were up to 45 and we’re currently tracking 70,” Longhurst said.

While the total number of employees and patients affected remains tiny as a percentage of the overall workload, and certainly when compared to the peaks seen during the pandemic, the recent rate of increase warranted action according to the health system’s pre-agreed-upon response plan.