Avleen K Mokha
In a press release released Friday, the provincial ministry for health and social services announced that caregivers and visitors can enter hospitals starting today, under new directives.
Only one person can visit someone at once. Each patient can see a maximum of four visitors in a day.
In emergency rooms, each patient can only have one chaperone, unless other people are needed for medical reasons or to announce bad news.
Hospitals will not accept visitors for patients that tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 28 days. The same applies for patients still recovering from the illness.
Likewise, patients with symptoms of COVID-19 or with pending test results cannot see visitors.
Healthcare staff can lift the above guidelines for patients in end of life care or in the case of an emergency.
Additional guidelines apply for certain departments. In oncology, only patients needing special support, such as patients with dementia, can have visitors. Children undergoing cancer treatment can have caregivers.
However, parents are welcome to accompany infants or children.
The ministry encourages women to have someone present during childbirth, as long as the person does not have COVID-19. If both a parent and child are both infected, they can travel together while wearing masks.
