Interior Health has brought in some temporary visitor restrictions at Royal Inland Hospital in Kamloops due to a pair of COVID-19 outbreaks.

Effective immediately, it says only essential visitors will be able to visit friends or family members in the hospital. Essential visitors include people coming to RIH for the following reasons:

• Visits for compassionate care: including critical illness, palliative care, hospice care, end-of-life, and medical assistance in dying;
• Visits to patients in the emergency department or intensive care unit;
• Visits for pediatric care, labour, and delivery;
• Visits necessary to support a patient’s physical care (e.g., assistance with feeding or mobility), mental well-being, or decision-making.

Interior Health did not say how long these restrictions would be in place for, though they said that no services in the hospital are impacted.

“These temporary visitor restrictions are in place as a precautionary measure due to current COVID-19 outbreak activity at the hospital,” a statement said. “The hospital remains safe to visit for anyone needing emergency care.”

There are currently 26 cases and one death connected to the outbreak on Unit 5 South at RIH, down by one case from yesterday’s update because of a data correction. There remain four cases connected to the outbreak on Unit 7 North.

Outbreak could have been started by unvaccinated visitors or patients: Dr. Henry

B.C.’s top doctor says a detailed investigation into a pair of COVID-19 outbreaks at Royal Inland Hospital will hopefully tell health officials what brought the virus into the Kamloops facility

Dr. Bonnie Henry says the outbreaks at RIH could have been started by unvaccinated patients or even visitors.

“The visitor policy, we have modified again recognizing we are going into a higher risk period but certainly visitors are something we are concerned about, particular unvaccinated people and if that puts staff at risk, it puts other patients at risk,” she said.

“More recently there has been some exposures that have led to transmission on the ward between patients so it is not vaccinated staff. It is people who are in the hospital for other reasons who are unfortunately exposed to COVID and I know they are doing a detailed investigation to try and figure out where was the introduction and how it got transmitted.”

Henry added what happens inside a hospital is often a reflection of the spread of the virus in the community.

“[We know the virus] can be transmitted in those indoor settings particularly if there are groups of people in a hospital room or a ward together,” she said. “So the transmission was actually in the hospital.”

While patients do not need to get vaccinated to get treatment at a hospital, visitors now have to show proof of vaccines before they’ll be allowed inside.