MU Health Care ends COVID-19 mask requirement

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

University of Missouri Health Care is ending the requirement that patients and visitors in its hospitals and clinics wear masks to guard against COVID-19, more than three years after the pandemic began.

The MU Health Care website's coronavirus safety page has been updated to say the organization was switching Thursday from universal masking to optional masking with some precautions. Those precautions are requiring masks for people with respiratory symptoms, those with COVID-19 or those visiting a patient with COVID-19.

The change also applies to the MU Health Care-affiliated Capital Region Medical Center in Jefferson City.

The decision was based on guidance from MU Health Care's accrediting agency, DNV, MU Health said in a news release. DNV issued an advisory Wednesday recommending the end of universal mask requirements.

Boone Hospital in Columbia ended its universal mask requirement earlier this month. SSM, owner of St. Mary's Hospital in Jefferson City, has also ended its mask requirements.

President Joe Biden on Monday signed a congressional resolution ending the federal public health emergency for COVID-19.