Health Sciences North has no admitted patients who have tested positive for COVID-19, the hospital said in a health bulletin this morning.
"We continue to monitor our situation closely," the bulletin reads. "At this time, we continue with regular operations."
If you are heading to the ER with suspected symptoms of COVID-19, you are asked to come alone and not bring a visitor with you.
As well, if you are coming to the emergency department for other issues not related to COVID-19, you are asked only to bring a visitor with you if absolutely necessary. This is to minimize any potential exposure.
"Visitor restrictions have not been put in place in other parts of the hospital, however to ensure we keep our patients and staff safe visitors who are not feeling well should not come to the hospital," HSN stated.
On March 11, HSN was asking patients with COVID-19 symptoms to call ahead before visiting the emergency department. Calling ahead is no longer necessary, the hospital said today, as additional triage has been set up.
"As part of enhanced screening measures, we have additional triage at the entrance to our emergency department," the bulletin states. "This means we no longer need patients to call ahead to the hospital if they are coming to the ED with suspected symptoms of COVID-19."
Health Sciences North is currently above 100-per-cent capacity. If you have a non-urgent medical issue, you are asked to seek care at walk-in clinics instead to minimize pressure on the emergency department.
The Sudbury hospital is now one of a handful of what are called sentinel hospitals, meaning all admitted patients being screened for influenza are also being tested for COVID-19.**
"Those swab tests are being sent to Public Health Ontario's Lab in Toronto for proactive community surveillance," HSN said in the statement.
**An earlier version of this story stated all admitted patients were being screened, regardless of the reason for their admission. This was an error in the original document provided to Sudbury.com.
