CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Officials at one of the state’s largest hospitals say the trends for Covid are headed in the right direction and they’re now easing restrictions on hospital visitation. Charleston Area Medical Center lifted its no-visitor policy Sunday as the patient census for Covid 19 has been on a steady decline in recent days.
“Our numbers of Covid positive in-patients have been steadily declining. Today there’s only 46 patients throughout four CAMC hospitals. We haven’t seen numbers this low since maybe the end of October,” said CAMC Spokesman Dale Witte.
Given the reduced cases, the hospital announced it will allow one visitor per patient, per day. However, the restrictions are still rigid. Each person will have to go through a health screening and temperature check prior to hospital entry. They’ll need to wear a mask the entire time they are in the building and for the most part will be confined to the patient’s room only, with the exception of having to step out while certain procedures or evaluations are performed. There will also be strict visiting hours from noon to 6 p.m.
“Research has demonstrated patients have better outcomes when they have visitors,” Witte said. “Visitors can help boost morale and provide comfort and can help with communications between provider and patients so we’ve wanted to have visitation as much as possible,”
However, they’ve also had to balance the benefits of visitors with the potential for spreading the highly contagious virus among others in the hospital setting, Witte said the vaccinations have been helpful in slowing things down.
“We just felt things were trending in the right direction and the ‘R-naught’ value is pretty low right now. Most of the workforce which has been offered the vaccine has at least one dose, so it’s just the right time,” he explained.
Witte suggested any visitors visit the hospital website to review a list of restrictions on who may or may not be in the hospital.