PeaceHealth sharply restricts visitors to Bellingham hospital amid COVID-19 outbreak
Visitors will no longer be allowed in St. Joseph hospital starting Tuesday, March 17, to protect patients, their families and health care workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic, PeaceHealth said in a release.
Visitors will be barred until further notification, PeaceHealth said Tuesday, March 17.
There will be exceptions, which will be made on a case-by-case basis.
“Loved ones are encouraged to connect with hospitalized patients using smartphone applications, such as FaceTime, WhatsApp or Skype, during this period of limited face-to-face support,” PeaceHealth said.
Those restrictions apply to all PeaceHealth hospitals in Washington state, which are in Friday Harbor, Longview, Sedro-Woolley and Vancouver.
Details are at peacehealth.org/coronavirus.
The number of Whatcom County residents who have tested positive for the novel coronavirus remains at three. Two cases were reported last week and the third on Sunday, March 15.
More than 190,000 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, with more than 7,500 deaths as of Tuesday morning, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 5,700 confirmed cases, with at least 94 deaths.
The Washington State Department of Health reported 48 deaths and 904 confirmed cases in the state as of Monday afternoon.
At least 43 people have died of COVID-19 in King County, four in Snohomish County, and one in Grant County. So far, confirmed cases have been found in 18 counties — Clark, Columbia, Grant, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Lewis, Lincoln, Pierce, Skagit, Snohomish, Spokane, Thurston, Whatcom and Yakima. The list also includes cases that are unassigned to counties.
About coronavirus
COVID-19, which stands for coronavirus disease 2019, is the name of the illness that first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, before spreading to other countries, including the U.S. It is caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2.
The contagious disease is spread through contact between people within six feet of each other — what’s referred to as close contact — especially through coughing and sneezing that expels respiratory droplets that land in the mouths or noses of people nearby.
The CDC says it’s possible to catch COVID-19 by touching something that has the virus on it, and then touching your own face, “but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
Symptoms — cough, fever, difficulty breathing — may occur two days to two weeks after exposure. Although most of the cases have been mild, the disease is especially dangerous for the elderly and others with weaker immune systems.
