California hospital wants to admit only COVID-19 patients as staff tests positive

A California hospital has stopped admitting most patients who do not have COVID-19, news outlets report.

Adventist Health Lodi Memorial Hospital has temporarily stopped admitting non-coronavirus patients to the hospital after “fewer than 30” staff members and health care workers tested positive for the virus in the past week, according to CBS SF.

The hospital did not release the specific number of how many team members tested positive, the Lodi News-Sentinel reported. Many staff members did not show symptoms, according to the news outlet.

Adventist Health will only accept coronavirus, emergency, and labor and delivery patients, KTXL reported.

“Lodi Memorial’s labor and delivery and post-partum units are in separate areas of the hospital and only staff and physicians who work in those units have access,” hospital officials said, according to the News-Sentinel.

“They are diverting non-COVID patients to another hospital so they don’t put themselves at risk,” Daniel Kim, San Joaquin County’s supervising public health educator, told KTXL.

Patients who have other medical needs will be admitted to Dameron Hospital in Stockton, according to the News-Sentinel.

“The safety and well-being of our nurses, associates, physicians and patients are our top priority,” Dr. Patricia Iris, medical officer of Adventist Health Lodi Memorial, told CBS SF. “Despite strict safety protocols, training and use of personal protective equipment, more of our staff began testing positive this week. As a result, we decided to test all associates working in the hospital to give us a more complete understanding of the spread.”