ELKINS — Davis Medical Center is temporarily asking staff to wear masks inside the hospital due to a “temporary and isolated” issue involving COVID-19, an official said.

“This has been a temporary situation as we experienced an outbreak of COVID among staff in our family practice clinic,” Tracy D. Fath, Vice President of Marketing & Development for Davis Health System, told The Inter-Mountain Friday.

“Next week, we will be clear of the ‘outbreak designation’ – which in healthcare is referred to as any time at least three employees test positive,” she noted. “Masking is an effective way to keep both staff and patients safe from the spread of contagious illnesses. Isolated to that department of the medical center, staff were asked to wear masks as a precautionary measure.

“Patients are not required to wear masks, but masking stations are available to any patient or guest who would like one,” Fath said. “Masking stations and hand sanitizers are readily available throughout all areas of the hospital, and have been since before COVID.

“The flu and COVID cases are increasing in our communities – and across the nation,” she added. “This is expected to continue as we transition to the fall, which is why people are encouraged to get their flu shot.”

A Randolph County Health Department official said Friday the situation at DMC did not qualify as a full-fledged COVID-19 outbreak, but noted hospital officials were wise to take masking precautions.

“That was in the outpatient doctor’s office, they had some staff that had traveled and tested positive,” Bonnie Woodrum, the department’s infectious disease specialist, told The Inter-Mountain. “So they were just taking precautions for a few days.

“We didn’t count that as an outbreak because it was community acquired. If it would have been in long term care or something like that, it would have been counted as an outbreak.”

For the week ending July 29, COVID-19 hospital admissions nationwide were at 9,056, the Associated Press reported. That’s an increase of about 12% from the previous week. But it’s a far cry from past peaks, like the 44,000 weekly hospital admissions in early January, the nearly 45,000 in late July 2022, or the 150,000 admissions during the omicron surge of January 2022.