Friday, July 2, 2021
Masking Still Required at San Juan Regional Medical Center for Your Safety
New Mexico has removed remaining pandemic restrictions and officially opened back up as of July 1, 2021. This is exciting and welcome news in our fight against COVID-19. However, to protect our vulnerable patient populations and each other from this devastating disease, San Juan Regional Medical Center and our San Juan Health Partners clinics will continue to follow COVID-safe practices, including the use of PPE for our caregivers and mandatory masks for everyone who enters our facilities.
Safety is our number one priority and COVID-19 is still a threat to public health. San Juan County’s current vaccination rate is 63.2 percent, but some portions of our county are much lower. Aztec, for example, only has a 36.2 percent vaccination rate. This can result in the spread of COVID-19, serious illness and even death.
Additionally, dangerous new COVID-19 variants present incredible risk such as increased transmissibility, reduced effectiveness of antibody treatments and reduced vaccine immunity. This has specifically been shown in the Delta variant from India, which we are seeing in San Juan County.
“We have seen cases where patients hospitalized with COVID told us they were planning to get the vaccine, but just hadn’t gotten around to it,” said Dr. Brad Greenberg, Emergency Medicine physician and Director of Emergency Preparedness at San Juan Regional Medical Center. “Don’t wait for COVID to infect you or a loved one. Make that choice to get vaccinated now before it’s too late.”
Enjoy the benefits that come with New Mexico’s reopening. Spend time doing the things you love with the ones you love as we head into this Fourth of July holiday weekend. Continue being safe, which means continuing to wear a mask anytime you visit San Juan Regional Medical Center and San Juan Health Partners. Mask wearing in healthcare settings is in accordance with the CDC’s guidance, as well as the State of New Mexico. In fact, the Governor’s office stated in a June 30 press release:
“Most health care facilities will continue to require masking, screening for COVID-19 symptoms, limited numbers of visitors, limited visitation times and continued COVID-19 testing for hospitalized patients and those undergoing certain procedures.”
For more on San Juan Regional Medical Center’s visitation policy, click here: https://www.sanjuanregional.com/visitation-policy.
We look forward to this next chapter and to moving closer to “normal” together, SAFELY, as a community.