Starting Friday, Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua Medical Center will not allow visitors to visit patients — a policy change prompted by the recent spike in COVID-19 cases.

Only those in extreme circumstances will be exempt from the updated policy, according to Laura Lott, Kaiser Permanente’s director of communications and public relations.

Those circumstances include “the birth of a child, pediatric patients, patients traveling with a caregiver, or for end-of-life situations,” Lott said in a news release today.

“This is a difficult decision for us to make, but we are doing this to protect the health and safety of our patients, as well as our providers and staff,” she said in a statement.

There have been 2,763 total COVID-19 cases reported in Hawaii so far.