UNC Hospitals Begins Visitor Restrictions Based on Rise of Respiratory Illnesses

UPDATE: As of March 27, the visitors restrictions at UNC Health locations in the Triangle are lifted as respiratory virus activity is decreasing.

Several UNC Health locations, including the UNC Hospitals campuses in Chapel Hill and Hillsborough, have begun temporary visitor restrictions as a health precaution while respiratory illnesses tick up in the winter.

An alert from the healthcare system on Sunday said starting Monday, it is placing age-based restrictions on visitors for those Orange County hospitals and UNC Faculty Physicians inpatient locations, with similar limits being enacted for UNC Health Rex in Raleigh and its UNC Health Johnston locations.

Visitors 11 years old and younger, as well as visitors of any ages with respiratory symptoms, are prohibited from all inpatient areas and waiting rooms — with exceptions considered on a case-by-case basis for visiting terminal care patients, critical care situations and urgent admissions. Healthy visitors of any age remain welcome in our lobbies and retail/food locations.

During the temporary restrictions, UNC Health staffers in their emergency departments, ICUs, stepdown units, and oncology units will be required to wear masks while providing direct patient care. Patients and visitors in those units are also “strongly encouraged” to wear masks, according to the alert.

While Sunday’s alert did not specify the respiratory illnesses, UNC Health issued similar restrictions in the winter of 2023 citing an uptick in influenza, RSV and COVID-19 cases. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Respiratory Case dashboard said the week of Dec. 28, 13.6% of emergency room visits across the state had a respiratory virus, which was up from 11.6% the week prior.

Those past restrictions — implemented in early January 2023, and the first visitor restrictions since COVID-19 restrictions were rolled back — were ultimately ended in March.

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