Emory Healthcare lifted COVID-19 vaccination requirements for employment or medical staff privileges, and providers and staff will no longer have to wear face masks when in direct contact with patients in outpatient settings, effective immediately. The loosened restrictions are not applicable in high vulnerability areas.
Emory University will also lift the COVID-19 vaccine requirements for health sciences students in the Emory School of Medicine and Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing in light of Emory Healthcare’s announcement, Chief Resilience Officer Amir St. Clair wrote in an email to the Wheel. The University previously erased the vaccine mandate for other students, faculty and staff on Feb. 9.
Emory Healthcare CEO Joon S. Lee, Chief Medical Officer and Chief Quality Officer Bill Bornstein and Chief Nurse Executive Sharon Pappas announced these changes in a July 27 email to Emory Healthcare employees.
According to the press release, current research does not suggest that the COVID-19 vaccine prevents health care workers from spreading COVID-19 to others.
However, Emory Healthcare still “strongly encourages” staff and physicians to follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 vaccination guidelines, according to the press release. Additionally, the press release states that Emory Healthcare will maintain its annual influenza vaccination requirement due to the “solid evidence” that the vaccine reduces the transmission of the virus from asymptomatic health care workers to patients.
Emory Healthcare is also lifting the ambulatory masking requirement — except in high-risk areas — due to consistently low levels of COVID-19 in the community, Lee, Bornstein and Pappas said in the press release.
These changes come over a year after the University lifted the mask mandate in most indoor spaces in March 2022 and on shuttles in October 2022.
Staff, providers, patients, care partners and visitors must still wear a mask if they have symptoms of a respiratory illness or if they are in areas with patients who are at an increased risk of COVID-19 and severe disease, such as those who are immunocompromised. Leaders in the areas will determine the patients’ risk, according to the press release.
Emory Healthcare will also continue to require staff and providers to wear masks while in direct contact with patients in inpatient areas.
