Starting on Tuesday morning, UNC Health locations in Orange and Chatham counties will have temporary restrictions on their visitors — especially young ones.
A release from the health system on Friday said the UNC Hospitals main campus in Chapel Hill, Hillsborough campus, Youth Behavioral Health locations, and UNC Health Chatham in Siler City will prohibit visitors 11 years old and younger from all inpatient areas and waiting rooms. The restriction also extends to any adult visitors presenting respiratory symptoms, as UNC Health is looking to prevent further spread of such illnesses. The measure goes into effect on January 2 at 7 a.m.
“We understand these restrictions can present some challenges for our visitors and can be difficult for children who have a loved one in the hospital,” Dr. Emily Sickbert-Bennett, Director of Infection Prevention for UNC Hospitals, said in the release. “However, in looking at the data and this active respiratory illness season, we believe this decision is important to help keep our patients and teammates safer while providing a healthy environment where our patients can continue their healing journey.”
UNC Health said all healthy visitors to the hospital — including children — will be allowed to stay in its lobbies and food locations. But the health system asks those planning to visit a loved on in the hospital to check the location’s visitor policies on their website or to call the clinical team taking care of the patient. UNC Health also continues to encourage all visitors to wear masks when visiting its locations and to remain home if you are feeling unwell.
The step in visitor restrictions comes amid a challenging winter for respiratory illnesses — like COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and the flu. According to the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, almost 21 percent of all emergency room visits across the state had symptoms of a respiratory virus. That represents an increase from the previous week (more than 17 percent) and the highest rates within 2023. Additionally, positive influenza admissions to the hospital outpaced COVID-19 admissions for the first time in years for the week of December 18 — with both of those numbers on the rise.
The Respiratory Illness dashboard published by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, with data last updated on December 28, 2023. (Photo via NCDHHS.)
The visitors restrictions are not going into effect for all UNC Health locations in the Triangle. Friday’s release said UNC Health Rex in Raleigh and Holly Spring — which set their own visitor policies based on local trends — are not implementing any changes on January 2.
The changes for the Orange and Chatham county UNC Health hospitals marks the first such tightening of visitor restrictions since March 2020, when the COVID-19 virus’ initial spread led to just one designated visitor being allowed to visit for the duration of a patient’s stay in the facility — and then, later, no visitors. That restriction was lifted in June 2020 after masking was made mandatory by the hospital system.
UNC Health said updates will be shared whenever the visitors restrictions may lift after consulting with its infection prevention teams over the coming weeks.
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Wow it’s almost as if we’re still in the middle of a pandemic. We have the tools to fight it – masks, air quality monitoring, surveillance testing – but we won’t use them!