Residents react to the return of masks at Guelph General Hospital

Mask are now required in clinical areas at Guelph General Hospital after a COVID-19 outbreak was declared earlier this week.

As of Thursday evening, eight patients and seven staff members had tested positive for the illness.

Jan Teeter visited the hospital on Friday and said she had already heard about the masking rules.

“The woman I'm going to see is pretty sick,” she said. “If it's going to keep her safe, then I'll put it on and happily wear it.”

While Teeter will be following the rules, she hopes they aren’t reintroduced elsewhere.

“I was a teacher. I'm retired now, but if I don't have to see a mask again, I'll be happy,” she said.

Jennifer Randall got a test done at the hospital and said the masks “sort of give you minor flashbacks of the worst” of the pandemic.

While she doesn’t want to relive those days, wearing a mask at a hospital is an easy thing for her to do if it helps those who need it the most.

“Obviously they're ill, or we're getting tested. So for sure, if that's a vulnerable place, then they deserve to be protected,” Randall said.

Public health weighs in

According Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, the spread of COVID-19 is less of a threat in the summer months.

Despite what many would hope, though, it hasn’t completely disappeared.

“Even though COVID is less urgent, less acute, less impactful at the community level, it's important for us remember that it hasn't gone away,” explained Dr. Matthew Tenenbaum, the associate medical officer of health for Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health.

He said we’ve come along way since the height of the pandemic thanks to safety measures strategically put in place to stop the spread of the virus.

“People did come out and get their vaccines and get boosters, and our community really responded to that ask when we had it during the pandemic,” Tenenbaum said. “That has helped put us in a better place today than we were back then.”

It’s important to stay on top of outbreaks or stricter rules could return.

“We're over the whole mandate, curfew and restrictions. We're really hopeful it doesn't come back,” said Sheena Lalani, who visited the hospital Friday.

The last time Guelph General Hospital had a mask mandate was in September 2023.

The hospital's current COVID-19 cases are the 5 west unit and 7 east unit. Visiting is prohibited in those two units during the outbreak.