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The Queen’s Medical Center on Saturday announced the reinstatement of its no-visitor policy, citing the recent rise of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
The medical center’s Punchbowl location closed to visitors at 2 p.m. Saturday, while its West Oahu facility is scheduled to enforce identical restrictions at the end of the day.
Molokai General Hospital and Queen’s North Hawaii Community Hospital will continue to allow one visitor per patient.
“As the rate of infection rises locally and nationally, we need to make sure that we do not lose sight of the safety protocols we currently have in place,” Jason Chang, Chief Operating Officer of The Queen’s Health Systems and President of The Queen’s Medical Center said in a news release. “After much deliberation, we have decided to return to our No Visitor Policy. We understand that the Holiday Season is here, but the well-being of our caregivers and patients must remain our primary concern.”
Exceptions will be made for obstetrics and pediatrics departments, and end-of-life care. Patients who have an appointment at a Queen’s Health Systems clinic can bring one caregiver.
The emergency department will also allow a single visitor to assist with early patient care, though that person is required to wait outside once that period is over.
There will be no exceptions made for COVID-19 positive patients or patients under investigation for contracting the virus, Queen’s said.
Queen’s urges would-be visitors to call or video chat friends and family to prevent in-person contact. Teams are prepared to assist in conducting such conversations.
>> RELATED: Hawaii’s total COVID-19 case count exceeds 100K with 1,591 new infections, 4 more related deaths
Saturday’s news arrives as Hawaii’s total COVID-19 case count ticks over 100,000.
Hawaii Department of Health officials on Saturday reported 1,591 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s total to 100,184 cases since the start of the pandemic. Four new deaths — three on Kauai and one on Oahu — were recorded in the state’s latest coronavirus update, pushing combined coronavirus-related fatalities to 1,082.
Health officials also said Saturday that, of the state’s total infection count, 10,821 cases were considered to be active. Officials say they consider infections reported in the past 14 days to be a “proxy number for active cases.” The state’s total number of active cases increased Saturday by 1,388.
The health department on Wednesday said there were 74 confirmed omicron cases in Hawaii, all of which were detected on Oahu. An additional four specimens from Hawaii island and two specimens from Maui were suspected to be examples of the highly transmissible variant, officials said at the time.
In its release Saturday, The Queen’s Medical Center encouraged residents to avoid large crowds, wear masks and exercise caution at holiday parties that can be high-risk situations for spreading the virus.
Queen’s also advised vaccinated residents to receive a booster shot, and urged the unvaccinated to consider getting a first dose as soon as possible.
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