New Provincial Guidance for Respiratory Illness Season – January 2025

With the transmission of respiratory illnesses such as influenza, RSV and cold viruses beginning to increase, the Ministry of Health and Vancouver Coastal Health has provided new, temporary infection control guidance for healthcare facilities during Viral Respiratory Illness (VRI) season.

  • Visitors are not required to wear a medical mask when visiting directly with one individual resident inside a single-bedroom or in an assisted living unit.
  • Visitors are required to wear a medical mask over their nose and mouth for the duration of all visits, if visiting directly with more than one resident during a single visit.
  • Visitors must only visit with their loved one.
  • Visitors must respect the personal space of the other residents.

Visitors are required to wear a medical mask when participating in indoor group events, celebrations, gatherings, and activities.
 
Visitors are required to wear all applicable Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) when additional precautions (i.e., contact, droplet, airborne) have been initiated for a resident. If visiting with a resident sick with respiratory illness, the visit should be limited to that resident.
 
In areas where visitors are not required to wear a mask, they can choose to do so based on preference.

Exceptions to the medical masking requirements are allowed for:

  • people under five years old,
  • people unable to wear a mask because of a health condition or a physical or mental impairment,
  • people unable to put on or remove a mask without help from another person,
  • people communicating with someone with a hearing impairment, and
  • at the discretion of the health care provider, if they determine the use of a mask would not be indicated in routine circumstances and will interfere with or prevent providing appropriate care to a resident

Routine practices
The policy emphasizes a holistic approach to infection prevention, including:

  • Practicing appropriate hand hygiene.
  • Staying up to date with vaccinations.
  • Avoiding work or visits when experiencing fever, runny nose, sore throat, cough and other symptoms.
  • Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) as required by point of care risk assessment (PCRA) or when additional precautions (such as droplet and contact precautions) are implemented.

Policy duration and review
The VRI Policy will remain in effect until VRI season is officially declared over in the spring (March/April), based on ongoing reviews of B.C.’s VRI epidemiology and health system trends.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact info@weinbergresidence.com.