Cook Children’s reinstates rules limiting visitors as COVID-19 cases spike

Cook Children's Medical Center is tightening its visitation policy, and again restricting who can accompany patients at the hospital.

FORT WORTH, Texas - A major North Texas children's hospital is taking more steps to protect its patients from COVID-19.

Cook Children's Medical Center is tightening its visitation policy, and again restricting who can accompany patients at the hospital.

Only one caregiver will be allowed per patient inside the hospital because of the rise in COVID-19 cases in Tarrant County and North Texas.

This rule change means siblings and other visitors will not be allowed in the hospital.

Officials said the same rule was in place between March and October.

“They won't be alone, and we just feel this is the safest thing for everyone," said Dr. Suzanne Whitworth, with Cook Children's Medical Center.

The hospital says the change removes about 200 people from the hospital per day, limiting potential exposure to staff and patients.

The Fort Worth hospital is seeing an increase in COVID-positive children, but doctors have said, for the most part, schools are not the problem.

Doctors at Children's Hospital said their projections for the virus paint a grim picture that could make it more difficult for schools to remain open, despite the success of their preventative measures.

“In the next weeks or months, it may get dramatically worse. The model systems are saying that. Our model system here at UT-Southwestern has been remarkably accurate, as far as looking out a few weeks. And all the trends are heading in the wrong direction, so it’s important for everybody to realize that we are far from the end of this pandemic,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, chief of infectious diseases at Children’s Medical Center.

While news of the Pfizer vaccine's effectiveness made it feel like there is a light at the end of the pandemic, Dr. Kahn said the darkest days may still be ahead.

“And it looks like the trajectory of the second peak may in fact be much higher than it was in June or July, he said. “The worst may be yet to come.”

The masking policies in many school districts have kept the virus from spreading in classrooms as much as some had feared, but there is growing concern about what is happening outside of school.

“That classroom spread, we were worried that we would see these, like, just balloon in the number of cases as soon as kids were in the classroom with each other, we weren’t seeing that. We certainly see spread there, but the majority of the spread, the feeling we have right now is that it’s still happening in large group gatherings, and in fact, in family events outside of school, or sports” said Dr. Nicholas Rister, infectious disease pediatrician with Cook Children’s Medical Center.

Dr. Rister added that as adult cases rise, children's cases are also rising, which will make it more difficult to stop the spread in school.

“Schools need to be commended, because this was sort of, it seems like an impossible task that we asked to minimize the spread,” he said. “As we’re seeing more and more spread, you have to be concerned that it’s going to be harder and harder for those measures to work.”

The message from all of the doctors is: Don't let your guard down as the holidays approach.

“There’s a big, big concern out there that after Thanksgiving, we will see another spike,” Dr. Kahn said.

Doctors said that if people want schools and businesses to remain open, they need to make sure the whole family wears masks at gatherings outside of school.

The governor's executive order calls for reduction in openings if 15% of a hospital's capacity is occupied by COVID-19 patients.

It's nearing 12% in North Texas.

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