KITCHENER -- Woodstock General Hospital is limiting its entrances beginning on Monday, days after the hospital announced it would no longer allow visitors.
The new measures come after an employee who reported to work following a trip to Mexico later tested positive for COVID-19.
The employee, a woman in her 40s, returned home from the Mayan Riviera on March 8.
As an essential worker, she worked at the hospital between March 9 and 11, a decision the hospital says aligned with previous Southwestern Public Health recommendations.
Those guidelines have since been changed to ensure that healthcare workers self-isolate for 14 days after travel as well.
The worker began feeling symptomatic on March 11 and began self-isolating that day.
She was tested on March 14, and the positive test result came in on March 17, the same day the hospital changed its policies.
Effective the day of the diagnosis, Woodstock General Hospital began its new policies.
Initially, the hospital restricted the number of visitors, changed visiting hours, and began to wind down non-essential surgeries and clinics.
On Thursday, the hospital introduced a no visitor policy, with the exception of critically ill, palliative patients, maternal patients and children, who would each be allowed one visitor or guardian.
Policies continue to evolve, with the hospital announcing that starting on Monday its main entrance will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the emergency department entrance will be open from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m.
The Athlone Avenue entrance will only be available to dialysis and chemotherapy patients through an intercom system.
After entering, all patients will wear a face mask, sanitize their hands and go to their treatment area where they will be screened by staff.
Hospital staff will also use a separate entrance, where they will be screened upon arrival.
