HILLSDALE, Mich. — New coronavirus numbers from Hillsdale county have health officials rethinking some of their restrictions.
Daily confirmed cases have decreased 27 percent from November to December, while the average daily count of COVID-19 patients at Hillsdale Hospital has decreased 58 percent as of Tuesday compared to their peak in early December.
“We are allowing one visitor in most in-patient areas so that would include our medical surgical floor as well as critical care unit," said Hillsdale Hospital Director of Marketing and Outreach Rachel Lott. "That would include our behavioral health unit and there are some extra limitations with that like visiting hours and that kind of thing."
Case numbers across the county have been trending in the right direction, making it safer for visitors to be closer to the ones they love.
“As a health care organization, you never want to be in the position of having to limit face-to-face access to their family," said Lott. "It is not something that we ever want to do, but it is a difficult decision that we have to make at certain times but that’s why we are paying attention to those so closely so we’re not continuing more restrictive visitation when maybe it’s not as necessary anymore.”
Hospital workers monitor the situation daily to make sure everyone stays safe.
“This is the third time I believe throughout the pandemic that we’ve had to make a major change to our visitation, from really restricted, to less restricted, really restricted again, a little less restricted again," said Lott. "So we’re doing everything we can to make sure we can make changes in real time as to what is appropriate based on what’s going on in our community.”
The hospital is still on high alert due to the pandemic and is requiring masks for visitors.
