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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Hospital visitors, visiting hours cut
A hospital employee in a protective suit crews the entrance to a designated isolation hospital in Kaohsiung yesterday. Photo: Fang Chih-hsien, Taipei Times
PRECAUTIONS: Taipei City Hospital’s Heping branch, epicenter of Taiwan’s SARS outbreak, bars visitors to general wards and limits ICU visitors to 30 minutes a day
/ Staff writer, with CNA
Several hospitals around the nation have imposed restrictions on inpatients’ visitors and companions in response to the COVID-19 outbreak, including limiting visitor numbers, reducing visiting hours and requiring people to present identification to enter their facilities.
The National Taiwan University Hospital （NTUH） in Taipei on Monday began restricting the number of visitors to wards to two per patient, with visiting hours limited to 11:30am to 12:30pm and 7pm to 8pm.
Each inpatient is allowed to have one companion.
The Linkou Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taoyuan has suspended all ward visits, with the exception of intensive care units （ICUs）, hospice care units and visitors with special permission. Inpatients are allowed one companion, who is required to register with the hospital.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Kinmen Hospital has a two-visitor policy for its wards, with one companion allowed per patient.
It has reduced visiting hours to two short periods: from 11am to 11:30am and 6pm to 7pm.
Taipei City Hospital’s Heping branch, which was the epicenter of the SARS outbreak in Taiwan in 2003, has barred visitors to its general wards, and limited visits with ICU patients to just a half-hour per day, from 12pm to 12:30pm.
Visiting hours at Taipei City Hospital’s other branches have been cut back to 11am to 11:30am and 7pm to 7:30pm for regular wards, and 11am to 11:30am for ICUs, and only two visitors are allowed per visit.
Patients’ companions — limited to one per patient — must present a companionship ID, have their temperatures taken and be free of fever and respiratory symptoms.
Outpatients, inpatients and their companions, and individuals visiting for work-related reasons must present their National Health Insurance cards, national ID cards or related documents when entering each hospital, the Taipei City Hospital said.
They must also wear a mask and provide their “TOCC”— travel history, occupation, contact history and clusters, it said.
Additional reporting by Tsai Ssu-pei
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
A hospital worker takes the temperature of a visitor to a ward at a hospital in New Taipei City yesterday. Photo: Weng Yu-huang, Taipei Times
