Health authorities are taking immediate measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic and it will affect all elective surgeries and procedures.

Starting Monday, only urgent or emergency surgeries will take place. Patients who are scheduled for elective surgeries on Monday will be accommodated. All other elective surgeries will be rebooked.

Affected patients will be contacted by their regional health authority.

All cancer services and in-centre dialysis services will continue.

Doorways, mobile crisis response teams and ACT teams will continue.

Inpatient rehabilitation services will continue.

Effective tomorrow Monday, March 16, new restrictions will be in place at regional health authority facilities. Surgeries, other services, and visitor rules all affected.

Please see release for full details. pic.twitter.com/9yx5WMbOIs

— Premier of NL (@PremierofNL) March 16, 2020

Urgent and emergent appointments at outpatient clinics will continue, while other appointments will be rebooked.

Only urgent or emergent diagnostic and therapeutic procedures will go ahead.

Visitor restrictions are also in place. Only one designated visitor is allowed per resident in long-term care homes. No visitors are permitted in any of the province’s hospitals with a number of exceptions.

There are no restrictions on the number of visitors to patients in palliative care, while only one designated person per patient is allowed in delivery rooms and parents can visit children who are inpatients.

Volunteering in the province’s hospitals is temporarily suspended and the use of health care facilities for community groups is also temporarily suspended.

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR – An online self-assessment tool to determine your risk for COVID-19 and whether or not you require testing, is available through https://t.co/4N0QDVzWiG CHECK IT OUT! #GovNL pic.twitter.com/boCTY0XpGf

— Health and Community Services NL (@HCS_GovNL) March 15, 2020