Novant to lift visitor restrictions at hospital in Manassas

Beginning 8 a.m. tomorrow, Thursday, Feb. 5, all Novant Health facilities including the hospital in Manassas will lift visitor restrictions that were put in place Jan. 2, according to a news release. During the height of this flu season, Novant asked the community to keep visitors younger than 18 years old out of its hospital facilities.

As a result of the declining number of flu cases seen over the past few weeks, these restrictions have been lifted.  “The decision has been made in collaboration with other large health systems,” according to the news release.

People exhibiting flu symptoms still should not visit patients. Those symptoms include fever, cough and/or sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, headaches and/or body aches, chills, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, and/or diarrhea. 

“Tom Zweng, MD, Novant’s chief medical officer, was quoted as saying, “The visitor restrictions were necessary to protect our most vulnerable hospitalized patients, but now as we see the number of influenza cases continue to decline we are happy to invite the community back into our facilities.”

The restrictions have been lifted at all hospitals throughout the Novant Health system. All hospital visitors should properly disinfect their hands by washing with soap and water or using sanitizing gel when entering and leaving the facilities in order to prevent the spread of the flu virus, the press release stated. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides regularly updated information on flu activity at this Web address: cdc.gov/flu/weekly/fluactivitysurv.htm.