It felt, at one point, like this moment would never come.

The year 2020 marked massive changes to health care worldwide, including right here in Butler County, where hospitals stretched their resources to the max to treat people with COVID-19 — a disease that swept across the globe, taking countless lives before treatments and vaccines could be developed.

The disease turned into a pandemic, and by summer 2020, masks were mandated in a number of states. In July, the masks were required in public in 20 states, including Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania lifted its mask mandate in June 2021, but masks remained a requirement in a number of venues, including on public transportation.

Unsurprisingly and understandably, medical facilities have been a holdout — despite the Centers for Disease Control September 2022 announcement that changed its position on mandatory masking in health care settings. The CDC said at that time that it no longer recommended “universal masking” in health care facilities.

Allegheny Health Network (AHN) dropped its mandate in late April, and UPMC employees went into work Monday without facial coverings for the first time in years. Butler Health System is yet to make a formal announcement at this time.

“When you look at the amount of patients in our communities or even in the state,” Paul Hanlon, senior director of quality, patient safety and compliance for UPMC said in a Tuesday article, “we as a leadership team across the system determined it would be the appropriate time to discontinue masking.”

Hanlon said some employees and patients also will continue to wear masks in certain units. If a patient requests it, the practitioners working with them will wear masks. Employees are also asked to stay home if sick, he said.

AHN and UPMC aren’t alone, as numerous hospitals across the country have been making similar decisions.

In late March, the University of Maryland Medical System and University of Michigan Health announced they were lifting mask requirements in public areas of its hospitals. News outlets in those respective communities covered the change.

More recently, Children's Wisconsin said on April 17 that it would no longer be enforcing a mask policy, and three days later, Cleveland Clinic announced it had plans to reverse its policy on masking.

We are excited about this major milestone, as it signals how much progress we’ve made.

— TL