A new, new normal as mask requirement is lifted at Mayo Clinic

John Molseed, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
Updated ·2 min read

Apr. 10—ROCHESTER — When Dan Shire arrived at Mayo Clinic's Gonda Building for an appointment Monday, he had a brief moment of panic.

He left his mask in his car.

"I had this moment of, 'Uh oh,'" he said.

The Mayo public and patient entrances still have masks for visitors who want them, but as of Monday,

masks were no longer required

in most Mayo Clinic patient care and public settings.

The change lifts three years of policy put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Mayo cited consistently low rates of COVID-19 transmission, hospitalizations and deaths in

its announcement

that it would ease masking requirements.

For some staff, the decision was welcome but also felt a bit strange after getting used to masking since 2020.

Since that year, staff and personnel at Mayo Clinic have had to mask in most settings.

Not having a mask would be like leaving home without a wallet, phone or keys.

"To take it off almost feels weird now," said Rebecca Cham, a pharmacy tech at the Mayo Clinic Hospital, Rochester Methodist campus.

Cham said that when she arrived at work Monday after four days off and saw a supervisor without a mask, she was briefly taken aback.

Cham was wearing a mask as was her habit in the exactly one year she has been on the job.

"I walked in and everybody was looking at me weird," she said. "I guess I just got used to it; it was the new normal."

Olmsted Medical Center has kept its mask requirement in place for now. The Ronald McDonald House is still not allowing visitors but guests and their families aren't required to mask, though masks are strongly encouraged.

At the Gift of Life Transplant House, masks aren't required at this time but are encouraged.

At some parts of the pharmacy at Mayo's Methodist Campus, the mask requirement was lifted in November.

Cham said the disappearance of masks "was kind of scary to me at first."

With the requirement in place since she began her job, it was the first time she saw some of her co-workers' entire faces.

"That was kind of fun," she said. "Some people I didn't know what they looked like and it wasn't what I pictured in my head."

The mask policy could change depending on future transmission and hospitalization rates of COVID-19. However, in prior years, the illness has slowed when the weather warms.

"I think this is the best time of year to adjust," Cham said, enjoying warm weather on a break Monday.