Jackson Health is changing visitation rules as omicron variant spreads, hospital says
Jackson Health System will be changing its visitation guideline due to the hospital seeing an increased presence of the omicron COVID-19 variant, the hospital said.
Starting Friday, only one healthy visitor will be allowed per day for certain patients, Miami-Dade’s public healthcare provider announced Thursday night.
Jackson Memorial Hospital saw its COVID patient count hit 58 on Thursday — the first time it was above 50 since late November.
In its new guidelines, all visitors must have a scheduled appointment, visitation with a current patient or an emergency requiring medical attention.
Visits for other purposes — such as visiting the gift shop or dining area — is not allowed.
All visitors will be screened and get their temperatures checked. They also must wear a mask covering their nose and mouth at all times while in Jackson facilities and follow physical distancing, hand hygiene and PPE guidelines.
Patients allowed to have a visitor include hospitalized adults, inpatient behavioral health patients, outpatients and those in long-term care facilities.
Adult emergency departments will not permit visitors.
Visitation exceptions will be made for all pediatrics; labor and delivery patients; end-of-life patients; and those with physical, intellectual, developmental or cognitive impairments or disabilities.
To find out more on Jackson Health’s visitation changes visit its website.
In Miami-Dade, at least six cases of the omicron variant have been detected.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava’s office confirmed Thursday that five of 373 samples sequenced — or 1%— of tests taken around two weeks ago were cases caused by the omicron variant. The rest were lineages of the delta variant.
On Thursday, Levine Cava held a press conference to encourage outdoor dining for the holidays as the omicron variant spreads.
She had no plans to return mandatory mask rules for county buildings, but announced a few new actions to combat the surge:
▪ Miami-Dade hospitals will resume daily reporting
▪ Mobile vaccination trucks will be put in underserved communities
▪ Homebound residents will have a way to get vaccinated
▪ Expanding monoclonal treatment
▪ Sequencing for variants at county sites
This comes after Florida saw its highest single-day increase of COVID cases since September.
This story was originally published December 16, 2021 at 7:13 PM.
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