Cleveland Clinic Florida is postponing non-urgent surgeries and adjusting its hospital visitation guidelines amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.
The new policy applies to non-urgent surgeries that require a hospital bed, and surgeries and procedures at outpatient centers aren't being postponed, the hospital group announced Thursday.
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"Our hospitals and emergency departments remain open to care for our community," the statement read. "Essential and urgent surgeries, as well as cancer and transplantation surgeries, will continue to be scheduled during this time period."
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Beginning this week, Cleveland Clinic Florida hospitals are also moving from level orange to level red visitation guidelines, which means one visitor age 18 and above per day will be allowed for patients in the emergency department and one visitor age 18 and above per day will be allowed for inpatients who are either COVID-19 positive or negative.
All visitors must be at least 18 years of age, wear a mask at all times, pass a COVID-19 health screening and sanitize their hands upon arrival.
"Visiting with loved ones is important to our patients. While we continue to manage high numbers of patients in our facilities, we have protocols in place that allow more individuals to visit, while still protecting our patients and caregivers," Cleveland Clinic Florida's statement read.
Earlier this week, Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale announced they were temporarily closing their maternity ward due to staff shortages related to the COVID-19 surge.
On Wednesday, Florida reported nearly 60,000 new cases of COVID-19 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Last week, Florida broke several records for the number of cases reported in a single day since the pandemic began in March 2020, reaching nearly 76,000 new cases on New Year's Eve.
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