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Hospital group enacts stricter visitor check-in policy

By Staff | Aug 3, 2020

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts hospital group’s stricter coronavirus-era visitor check-in policy takes effect Monday.

All visitors to Baystate Health facilities are now required to provide their full name and phone number, a photo identification, as well as the name of the patient they are visiting.

Visitors are required to wear face coverings and are only allowed in the rooms of the patient they are visiting.

The new rules are “necessary to protect the health and safety of our patients and staff,” the Springfield-based hospital system said in a statement.

The policy applies to Baystate Medical Center and Baystate Children’s Hospital in Springfield; Baystate Franklin Medical Center in Greenfield; Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield; and Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer.

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LIFEGUARD PARTY

Two more lifeguards who work for the town of Falmouth have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total who have tested positive to 10, town officials said.

Last week, eight lifeguards tested positive following a party July 21 and the town set up free testing for all 117 Beach Department staff members, the Cape Cod Times reports.

The town has been advised that two other lifeguards tested positive Sunday, according to a statement issued Monday by Town Manager Julian Suso. One case was self-reported and the second case was confirmed through the process set up by the town.

Both lifeguards have been removed from the work schedule and are quarantined, Suso said.

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GRADUATION CANCELED

A Catholic high school in Massachusetts canceled its in-person graduation after a student and parent tested positive for the coronavirus, officials said.

Archbishop Williams in Braintree was supposed to hold graduation Friday, but it was called off after school officials received a report Thursday that a student’s parent tested positive. Later that day, the school was informed that the parent’s child also tested positive.

“We decided not to go forward, out of an abundance of caution,” school President Dennis Duggan said in an email to families, according to The Patriot Ledger.

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