GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Becoming one of the first and largest hospital systems in the state to drop a total mask mandate, Northeast Georgia Health System announced Friday that employees, patients and visitors who are vaccinated would not be required to wear masks any longer at its facilities.
The new policy is effective Friday, Sept. 30. The hospital system operates the 557-bed Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville and three other smaller hospitals in Winder, Braselton and Dahlonega.
NGHS said it defined fully vaccinated per CDC standards as two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson.
The hospital system's top COVID response doctor left open the door for reinstituting a mask requirement if cases again surge.
"We’re really happy to take this step, but it’s not to say that we’re completely out of the woods,” Dr. John Delzell, incident commander for NGHS’ COVID-19 response, said in a statement. “Safety is our top priority, so we may require universal masking for employees and visitors again if our area’s COVID-19 transmission levels increase in the future.”
The hospital system said it will continue to require masks for all employees, patients and visitors at its long-term care facilities or for anyone with COVID-19 and for "anyone who is symptomatic, inside the 10-day isolation window or has had close contact or exposure to someone with COVID-19."
NGHS added that its waiting rooms at all locations were now fully open, though social distancing is "still encouraged when possible."
“We’ve come a long way in knowing how to handle this virus,” Dr. Delzell said. “We’re pleased to make this change and get back to some sense of normalcy around the hospital. We know this is a step our community and our employees have been looking forward to for quite a while.”