S06 - Amendment 0002 - Attachment One (1) - VHA COVID-19 Masking Guidance.pdf

MESSAGE FROM THE UNDER SECRETARY FOR HEALTH

May 30, 2023

VHA COVID-19 Masking Guidance

Colleagues, This message provides updated masking guidance for our medical facilities. This guidance has been thoughtfully developed over the past month by a multi-disciplinary team of clinical and operational subject matter experts and VA/VHA leadership.

In the coming weeks, we anticipate releasing an updated VHA COVID-19 Operational Plan that will create new baseline standards that reflect the current COVID-19 reality while simultaneously providing tools and flexibilities for our facilities to respond appropriately to potential future COVID-19 outbreaks.

This masking guidance is in line with the latest CDC guidance and based on the hard lessons we have learned over the last three years, while reflecting input from all levels of the organization.

Effective immediately, masking continues to be required for staff, Veterans, and visitors while in the high-risk areas listed below, including waiting areas:

• Transplant units

• Dialysis

• Chemotherapy units

• ED & urgent care

• Open Bay Medical ICUs

• SCI and CLC (staff and visitors only)

Staff may remove masks in these high-risk areas only under the following circumstances:

• they are not in a patient room;

• they are not within six feet of a Veteran in a congregate area (e.g., shared meals in

CLC); or

• they are not within six feet of a patient in an open treatment area/room.

Masking also continues to be required:

• for those with a suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection or other viral respiratory infection;

• for VA staff during clinical encounters when requested by a Veteran, caregiver or family member; or

• where local leadership warrants continued masking is required.

Masking is no longer universally required in the following locations:

• Acute inpatient medical/surgical units

• Acute inpatient mental health units

• Intensive care units with closed rooms

• Clinical areas where aerosol generating procedures are performed

• Laboratories collecting or handling specimens from known or suspected COVID-19 patients (e.g., areas where staff are manipulating cultures from known or suspected COVID-19 patients)

• Congregate settings and bedded residential settings (e.g., blind rehab, residential mental health, homeless shelters)

• Outpatient areas where a significant proportion of patients have high-risk for complication

In addition, VHA is updating its COVID-19 Testing Guidebook and will no longer require routine testing for ambulatory procedures or for Veterans leaving and returning to a closed congregate setting. Surveillance testing for CLC and SCI-D Staff is no longer required in all circumstances. Additional guidance will be included in VHA’s updated COVID-19 Testing Guidebook.

We have set the standard for COVID-19 care throughout the pandemic, and we will not stop now.

While COVID-19 is and will continue to be with us for the foreseeable future, the recent end of the Public Health Emergency marks a turning point. As an organization and a country, the experience we have gained, combined with the tools and treatments we have developed, have made us more prepared and more capable than ever before. COVID-19 tested us like no other disease in our lifetime, and your performance during the last three years has been nothing short of extraordinary. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to support Veterans.