CONTRIBUTED BY EAH
Effective Thursday, Feb. 24, visitation at East Alabama Medical Center and EAMC-Lanier will return to the yellow level — it has been at red level since Dec. 27, 2021, when the Omicron variant caused the fifth surge of COVID hospitalizations to begin. Hospitalizations reached 100 on Jan. 18, but have since declined to the lower 30s. Another factor for the change is the moving seven day percentage of positive COVID cases. After being between 40 to 50% most of January, it has dropped significantly over the past two-to-three weeks. For Alabama, it is currently 10.2%, while Lee County is at 8.8% and Chambers County comes in at 9%.
The primary difference between red and yellow is that yellow allows for two visitors instead of one in some areas, and one visitor instead of zero in other areas. Beginning Thursday, signage regarding yellow level visitation will be posted outside the main entrances to both hospitals as well as at the Auburn Medical Pavilion.
To learn more about the visitation levels, please visit www.eastalabamahealth.org/assets/documents/patientsguests/visitation-levels-updated-10-8-2021.pdf).