CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – UNC Hospitals and UNC Health Chatham will implement temporary age-based visitor restrictions for some areas across our inpatient hospitals beginning at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, January 2, 2024.

“We understand these restrictions can present some challenges for our visitors and can be difficult for children who have a loved one in the hospital,” said Dr. Emily Sickbert-Bennett, Director of Infection Prevention for UNC Hospitals. “However, in looking at the data and this active respiratory illness season, we believe this decision is important to help keep our patients and teammates safer while providing a healthy environment where our patients can continue their healing journey.”

Effective Tuesday, January 2 on our UNC Hospitals’ Chapel Hill, Hillsborough, and Youth Behavioral Health campuses and at UNC Health Chatham in Siler City:

  • Visitors aged 11 and younger will be prohibited from all inpatient areas and all waiting rooms
  • All visitors with respiratory symptoms are prohibited from these same areas
  • Normal visiting policies will remain in effect for the remaining areas within UNC Hospitals
  • Healthy visitors of any age will remain welcome in our lobbies and retail/food locations

Other hospitals in the UNC Health system set their own visitor restrictions and policies based on local trends and other factors. At this time, UNC Health Rex in Raleigh and Holly Springs are not implementing additional restrictions.

Please note: If you’re planning to visit a loved one in the hospital, check with their clinical team or on the hospital’s website under “Visitor Policy” for any updates.

If you are feeling sick or have recently experience any symptom of respiratory illnesses, please stay home. We continue to encourage all visitors to wear masks in our hospitals.

Our infection prevention teams continuously monitor key criteria to help guide hospital leaders’ decision-making of when to impose and lift visitor restrictions to protect patient and teammate safety. We will share updates about when this restriction might lift as available. [source]