{"id":388599,"date":"2026-01-03T08:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388599\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T08:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T08:22:11","slug":"mass-general-brigham-strongly-encouraging-masking-for-visitors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388599\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass General Brigham \u2018strongly encouraging\u2019 masking for visitors"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHealth\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tFor the time being, MGB is requiring its health care providers to wear masks during direct patient interaction.<\/p>\n

\"Bloomberg
\n\t Paul Yeung\/Bloomberg Creative Photos, Bloomberg\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Abby Patkin<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJanuary 2, 2026 | 4:18 PM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

1 minute to read<\/p>\n

With respiratory infections on the rise in Massachusetts and flu cases spiking<\/a>, the state\u2019s largest hospital system says patients and visitors are \u201cstrongly encouraged\u201d to wear masks during doctors appointments.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t
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\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

For the time being, Mass General Brigham<\/a> said its health care providers will be required to wear masks during direct patient interactions, including meetings in patient rooms or other clinical care areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Masks are not required in lobbies or other common areas at Mass General Brigham facilities, according to the health system\u2019s website.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MGB is also advising, but not requiring, masking for patients and visitors \u2014 particularly if they have a fever or flu-like symptoms, or if they\u2019re getting over a respiratory cold. Patients who opt to wear their own mask to an appointment will be asked to wear a facility-issued mask on top.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask all patients who are wearing masks to do this because some patients are required to wear masks,\u201d MGB\u2019s website explains. \u201cBy wearing one of our masks on top of your home mask, it helps us know that the mask you are wearing is clean and effective.\u201d<\/p>\n

MGB\u2019s call to mask comes as data from the state\u2019s Department of Public Health estimates \u201cvery high\u201d Influenza-like illness<\/a> activity for the week of Dec. 21.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the DPH, an estimated one in five emergency room visits last week were related to acute respiratory disease. So far this season, children under the age of 5 and seniors over the age of 80 have had by far the highest rates of respiratory illness-related ER visits<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the Today newsletter<\/p>\n

Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Health For the time being, MGB is requiring its health care providers to wear masks during direct patient…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-388599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}