Mask Mandate Still In Place At RWJBarnabas Hospitals In New Jersey

NEW JERSEY — Visitors are still required to wear a mask at all RWJBarnabas Health hospitals and facilities across the state, administrators said Tuesday.

RWJBarnabas reintroduced a mask mandate at its hospitals on Oct. 2. That requirement continues, although other hospital systems may have lifted their own mandates, administrators noted (see a list of impacted hospitals below).

The guidelines include:

• Inpatients - All inpatients, who are able to, will be required to wear a face mask when leaving their room and can also choose to wear a mask at any time.
• Outpatients - Face masks must be worn at all times when at an RWJBarnabas Health facility.
• Staff - Face masks must be worn when providing direct care to patients at all RWJBarnabas Health locations. All staff can also choose to wear a mask at any time.
• Visitors, Volunteers and Vendors - Face masks must be worn at all times when in the presence of patients at all RWJBarnabas Health facilities.

In addition to wearing a mask and performing a COVID-19 risk assessment prior to visiting, all visitors must clean their hands before and after their visit and practice proper social distancing while in an RWJBarnabas Health facility, administrators said.

RWJBarnabas Health owns more than a dozen hospitals across New Jersey. Its system includes:

• Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville
• Community Medical Center in Toms River
• Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston
• Jersey City Medical Center in Jersey City
• Monmouth Medical Center in Long Branch
• Monmouth Medical Center Southern Campus in Lakewood
• Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Somerset in Somerville
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Hamilton in Hamilton
• Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway in Rahway
• Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth

According to a statement from RWJBarnabas, the renewed mask mandate was rolled out in response to a “steady increase in respiratory illness and COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state.”

As of Tuesday, CDC data maps showed only two New Jersey counties that weren’t at “low” COVID-19 hospital admission levels: Atlantic and Cape May. Both counties were in “medium” status.

See the New Jersey Department of Health’s latest Weekly COVID-19 and Respiratory Illness Activity Report here. Some highlights from the report ending Oct. 14 include:

• For the week ending October 14, less than 2.2% of deaths were due to COVID-19 (as per CDC COVID Data Tracker)
• In the past week, 1.2% of emergency department visits were diagnosed as COVID-19 (as per CDC COVID Data Tracker)
• In the four weeks leading up to October 7, FL.1.5.1 accounted for 28.75% of sequenced variants. EG.5 and XBB.1.16.6 accounted for 26.25% and 16.25% of sequenced variants, respectively.
• For the week ending October 14, one COVID-19 outbreak was reported into the SIC module by K-12 schools.
• Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) percent positivity is below 10% and activity remains low within the state of New Jersey

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