Masking
Masking for Workforce
UConn Health’s workforce is no longer required to wear a mask during all direct, patient-facing interactions in both outpatient and inpatient settings at this time. Future additional masking requirements may be implemented in specific units, clinics, or departments by UConn Health and will be communicated with entryway signage.
Any workforce member in any UConn Health location will be required to wear a mask if they:
- Have signs or symptoms of respiratory illness.
- Are returning to work after a respiratory virus infection.
- Did not receive an influenza vaccine under the policy.
Masking for Patients and Visitors
Masks are recommended by UConn Health for both patients and visitors. However, patients and visitors are required to wear a mask in our facilities if:
- They have symptoms that may be due to respiratory illness.
Anyone who prefers to wear a mask in areas where it is not required should feel free to continue doing so.
Updated Return to Work Protocol Following Respiratory Virus Infection and Exposure
If you need to call out sick, please follow your department’s standard call-out procedures. All sick leave absences will be managed in accordance with UConn Health’s attendance policy and all other applicable regulations.
Based on DPH guidelines, we are updating our UConn Health return-to-work protocols for healthcare personnel with suspected or confirmed respiratory virus infections. This includes individuals who test positive for Influenza, RSV, and SARS-CoV-2.
Suspected respiratory viral infection includes individuals with at least two of the following symptoms: fever, malaise, cough, rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, or sore throat.
For healthcare personnel with a suspected or confirmed viral respiratory infection:
Period of Exclusion: 3 calendar days from symptom onset, and meet the following criteria:
- No fever for 24 hours.
- Symptoms overall improve.
- Feeling well enough to return to work.
Masking: Upon return to work from days 4-7 after symptom onset.
For healthcare personnel with close-contact exposure to suspected or confirmed viral respiratory infection without symptoms:
Period of Exclusion: None.
Masking: Day 0-5 after exposure.
Individuals with moderate to severe immunocompromising conditions may require additional measures upon returning to work. Please work with your MD and/or call Employee Health for further individualized guidance.
Moderate and severe immunocompromising conditions and treatments include, but are not limited to:
- Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies.
- Hematologic malignancies associated with poor responses to vaccination regardless of current treatment status (e.g., chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, multiple myeloma, acute leukemia).
- Receipt of solid-organ transplant or an islet transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy.
- Receipt of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T-cell therapy or hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) (within 2 years of transplantation or taking immunosuppressive therapy).
- Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (e.g., common variable immunodeficiency disease, severe combined immunodeficiency, DiGeorge syndrome, Wescott-Aldrich syndrome).
- Advanced HIV infection (people with HIV and CD4 cell counts less than 200/mm3, history of an AIDS defining illness without immune reconstitution, or clinical manifestations of symptomatic HIV) or untreated HIV infection.
- Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (i.e., 20 mg or more of prednisone or equivalent per day when administered for 2 or more weeks), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents.