Thunder Bay regional hospital restricting visitors as local COVID-19 case count rises

The Thunder Bay regional hospital is implementing visitor restrictions as the number of COVID-19 cases has started rising in the area.

Starting Wednesday, the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre said it will be limiting visitors to the facility to only essential care partners for 12 hours per day.

The Thunder Bay District Health Unit had reported 23 new cases of COVID-19 in a five-day span from late last week to Tuesday.

Hospital incident manager Dr. Stewart Kennedy said he is very concerned with the rapid rise in cases.

"Last week at this time we had basically zero, now we have 23," Kennedy said in a Tuesday video update posted by the hospital.

"It represents the prevalence in the community. When the prevalence has increased, that means there is more COVID-19 in the community and we have to take extra precautions to ensure we're protecting our patients, and our staff and our professional staff here in the hospital.

The definition of essential care partners includes people who are visiting a patient under the age of 18, patients who are undergoing surgery, patients in the intensive care unit, patients with cognitive, behavioural, mental health or communication issues, or patients who could die within the next 72 hours.

Hospital officials said the change in visitation policy does not have an impact on the facility's clinical programs and services, with surgeries, diagnostic procedures and outpatient services continuing at current levels.

Kennedy said, at the time of the announcement, there were no patients with COVID-19 admitted to the hospital.