Cottage Health pauses patient visitors due to COVID-19 surge

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — The fifth wave of COVID-19 is setting records across the country. To lessen the risk of healthcare workers getting sick Cottage Health is not allowing visitors. 

In the last seven days Santa Barbara County Public Health has stated there have been 3,939 new cases of COVID-19. That’s a seven-day average of 563. During the fourth wave, there were 3,371 new cases reported in August. 3,108 reported in September. Between the third and fourth waves, March through July 2021, there were 3,826 new cases in Santa Barbara County.

Dr. Lynn Fitzgibbons has been on the frontlines as an infectious disease specialist. She said, “Our healthcare workers, our hospital staff have never been hit as hard with a surge as they are right now.”

Due to the current surge Cottage Health is taking extra precautions and not allowing visitors. 

“We owe it to every single person in our community who needs our services today or will need them in the next few days or couple of weeks," said. Dr. Fitzgibbons. "We need to keep the hospital as safe and a COVID-free environment.”

There are some exceptions to the visitor policy. The hospital will allow one visitor to be with a woman in labor, pediatric patient or a patient that has special needs and wouldn’t be able to receive care without the help of the visitor. The policy started Wednesday and will continue until the surge is over.

“Even those patients who fit one of the exceptions are only for the most part are only having one visitor,” said Dr. Fitzgibbons.

The goal is to keep the frontline workers as healthy as possible with cases surging. The first week of 2022 has already seen more cases than any other week during the pandemic.

“Cases in our community unfortunately it’s again necessary to limit visitations to protect the hospital," said Dr. Fitzgibbons. "To protect our patients and also to protect our staff.”