Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown starts requiring masks again

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Bassett Medical Center announced it has reinstituted temporary masking requirements effective immediately as the number of Bassett employees testing positive for COVID is rising.

All patients, visitors, employees, students, and volunteers are required to wear medical-grade masks across the facilities including the main hospital, fieldstone building, clinic building, Railroad Avenue outpatient rehabilitation at Clark Sports Center, and all administrative office buildings, according to a Bassett Healthcare Network news release.

While masking requirements are in place, signs will be posted to alert those entering the building, and masks will be made available at all entrances.

The requirement does not, at this time, apply to Bassett Healthcare Network’s other hospitals. However, its Cobleskill Health Center also has temporary masking measures in place.

Bassett’s infection-prevention team and other experts established ongoing guidelines around masking. Currently, the number of COVID-19 cases confirmed among employees at Bassett Medical Center reached the threshold for a temporary mask mandate.

The health system will reassess the masking requirement in 14 days and lift it as soon as the number of active cases within the facility falls below the established threshold.

Bassett Healthcare Network’s facilities include five corporately affiliated hospitals along with both community based and school-based health centers and two skilled-nursing facilities.