On Monday, the largest hospital in Alabama became the latest in the state to no longer require masks be worn by staff, patients and visitors at its facilities, with limited exceptions.

After UAB Hospital’s change in policy on masking, many of the largest Alabama hospitals by bed size have made masks optional, in accordance with CDC guidelines from September that relaxed masking requirements in most health care settings.

Some of the biggest Alabama hospitals, such as Mobile Infirmary in Mobile and Southeast Regional Medical Center in Dothan, loosened their mask restrictions just days after the new CDC guidelines came out. Others, like UAB and the Tuscaloosa-based DCH Health System, implemented relaxed masking policies this month.

Huntsville Hospital was the only major state hospital contacted by AL.com to continue to require masks be worn by staff, patients and visitors. A spokesman for Brookwood Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham could not immediately be reached.

The CDC guidance, last updated Sept. 27, only recommends masks in such settings if transmission rates are high or when a person is suspected of having COVID-19 or another respiratory infection; when a patient or visitor has close contact or a higher-risk exposure to someone with COVID-19 for 10 days after their exposure; works or resides in a unit or area of a facility experiencing a COVID-19 outbreak; or masking is recommended by public health authorities.

UAB Health care workers aren’t required to mask if they are vaccinated against the coronavirus and don’t have symptoms of respiratory infection, with limited exceptions, the hospital system announced.

Patients and visitors are also not forced to wear masks at UAB facilities regardless of vaccination status as long as they don’t have respiratory infection systems “in both patient and ambulatory settings.”

Here are the masking policies of other major hospitals in Alabama:

Baptist Medical Center South (Montgomery)

Masks are recommended, but not required, for all patients and visitors.

Staff, patients and visitors will be required to mask at the Montgomery Cancer Center hematology/oncology units, infusion areas, NICUs and some patients in ICUs.

Masks are also required for anyone in the hospital with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 or other respiratory infections and other exceptions outlined in the CDC guidelines.

DCH Health System (Tuscaloosa and west Alabama)

Mask wearing for staff and visitors is optional, with some exceptions.

Masks are still required “in certain patient care areas such as when visiting patients who are positive or suspected to be positive for highly transmissible diseases such as COVID-19,” the system’s policy states.

Visitors in such areas also need to follow all staff instructions “related to wearing personal protective equipment, including masks.”

Should the community transmission rate as measured by the CDC return to the “high” level, the policy will be “revised accordingly.”

Mobile Infirmary

Masks are optional at Mobile Infirmary, with some exceptions:

• In the Intensive Care Unit (ICUs) patient rooms
• Masking ordered by the physician in order to protect the patient
• Patient requests that visitors or those caring for them wear a mask
• When visiting COVID positive inpatients, those exhibiting COVID symptoms or otherwise immunocompromised individuals

Southeast Regional Medical Center (Dothan)

Masks are optional any time the CDC community transmission rate is below “high.”

During times of high transmission, masks are required to be worn in the hospital by “everyone who is able.’