Calvary Hospital’s CEO Christopher Comfort quoted in the October 10, 2023 article in Hospice News “What Hospices Need to Know about Emerging COVID Strains”

“There’s been a lot of debate about restrictions both in the nursing home setting and in the hospital setting. The State of New York has not changed any specific guidance related to nursing homes. The majority of nursing homes still have a mandate for masking with direct care of patients,”

Dr. Christopher Comfort, CEO of New York City’s Calvary Hospital, told Hospice News.

“The directives that are coming from the state offer a tremendous amount of choices that can be made, and most of the instructions about masking and restrictions for patients are at the discretion of the hospital.”

The Greater New York Hospital Association, a trade group, will soon convene to discuss a unified response to COVID surges, including potential mask mandates, according to Comfort.

He said that the New York City region has seen an uptick in infection rates, but the number of hospitalizations has remained relatively stable. Mortality rates are well below those seen in 2020.

“The positivity rates of tests of individuals who are tested for COVID are at levels that we were seeing at the end of 2020. They are about a quarter of the levels that we were seeing at the beginning of 2020 when the pandemic really first hit New York,” Comfort said. “So the strains that we’re seeing look like they’re pretty infective, but if you look at the severity of the illness and associated hospital rates or with death rates, those are actually at pretty steady levels.”

Read the full article here.