Queen Elizabeth Hospital relaxes some restrictions on visitors

The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is letting more visitors in to see patients, as of Saturday.

Restrictions put in place after two recent coronavirus cases connected to the Charlottetown hospital meant no visitors were allowed except for labour and delivery, pediatrics and ICU.

Visitors for those departments were limited to two per patient, and they had to inform the hospital in advance that they would be coming.

Requests for exemption from the rules on compassionate grounds had to go through the hospital's Chief Administrative Officer.

Now, two weeks later, a Health PEIstatement says "two designated visitors will be permitted at all services within the hospital," starting this weekend.

"In addition, patients who are at or nearing the end of their lives will be permitted to have six designated visitors, with a maximum of two at a time," the statement says.

Visitors limited since July 13

The visitor restrictions were imposed after a medical worker in the hospital's emergency department tested positive for COVID-19.

The man had flown to P.E.I. from Toronto on July 2. He initially tested negative for the coronavirus, showed no symptoms, and worked seven shifts at the hospital between July 4 and 11.

He was retested after a Queens County woman in her 80s was diagnosed with COVID-19, after seeking treatment at the hospital.

Hundreds of hospital staff and patients were tested for coronavirus in the days that followed, but no other cases showed up.

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