Rising COVID Cases Prompt New Visitation Rules At JMH

MIAMI (CBSMiami) - Sam Ginoni didn't find out until he got to Jackson Memorial Hospital that visitations are now limited.  

"I have a friend of mine here that's having a procedure.  We got here at 6 and they wouldn't let me go up with him, it seems like it's starting all over again," Ginoni said.

He'll have to wait hours to see his friend. "I've been here since 6 o'clock this morning. 12 hours. I'm not going to go back to Broward to come back down here again in traffic to see him," he said.

Jackson Memorial Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hany Atallah tells CBS4 that as COVID cases go up, they have to adjust visitation rules. "We've had to roll back our visitation a bit to be a little bit more conservative given the increase of Covid in the community," Dr. Atallah said.

Now, just 1 visitor is allowed at a time, down from two,  for adults, visitation time is from 9 until noon, then again from 5-9. In the ER - no visitors are allowed for adult patients and 1 for children.

"By limiting the number of visitors we're limiting the amount of people in the hospital at a time who could potentially lead to infections in the hospital," Dr. Atallah said.

We also checked with Baptist, Memorial Healthcare and Broward Health.  They tell us their visitation rules have not changed.  Most hospitals are seeing increased covid patients. at Jackson they have 63 covid patients now, up from 40 last Monday. Baptist has 100, up from 69, Memorial is at 88, up from 74 last week.  Broward health has just 22 covid patients, that's down from 25 last Monday.

Back at Jackson, Lugi Curiulal is a new father.  With the new rules he's waiting anxiously to see his daughter in the Newborn ICU — only one person allowed at a time.

"It's a little bit difficult because I want to see my daughter. I want to see her and…me or the mother, I have to wait for her to come down and me to go upstairs," he said.

If you have plans to visit a friend or loved one in the hospital check out the visitation rules before you go.

Hospital visitation: