PANAMA CITY One local hospital has announced restrictions on visitation protocol following a recent increase of positive COVID-19 cases in Bay County.
On Thursday, Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center in Panama City started restricting the number of people who can visit patients. The measure is temporary and includes both the hospital and Panama City ER on U.S. 231. These changes will help limit COVID exposures to our patients, colleagues and providers. We appreciate your cooperation in support of our infection control efforts, GCRMC officials wrote in the news release announcing the restrictions.
The updated policy bars visitation in the emergency room, with exceptions for pediatric patients, and in the intensive care unit. Hospice and palliative care patients can have one adult visitor. Pediatric patients in the ICU can have two parents or guardians, who can stay overnight.
PANAMA CITY Both of Panama City’s hospitals are slated to get their first round of the COVID-19 vaccine from the state possibly as soon as next week.
According to a press release from the office of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center and Ascension Sacred Heart Bay will receive doses of Moderna’s vaccine. They are two of 173 hospitals set to get some of the 367,000 doses of the vaccine next week, pending emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The 173 hospitals, which span 43 counties, are those that did not get the first allocation of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
But late Wednesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis released a list of 181 Florida hospitals that would receive the first batch of vaccines produced by the Moderna company. This shipment is to include 270,700 doses that are scheduled to be distributed in the wake of Moderna s vaccine receiving an Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday.
The Moderna vaccines do not have to be stored in the ultra-cold conditions required by the Pfizer vaccines.
Among those hospitals on the list to receive Moderna shipments are Fort Walton Beach Medical Center and Twin Cities Hospital in Okaloosa County.
Ascension Sacred Heart, which has hospitals in Walton and Escambia counties, also made the list, as did Baptist and West Florida hospitals in Escambia, Gulf Breeze Hospital and Jay Hospital in Santa Rosa County, Gulf Coast Regional Medical Center in Bay County and Northwest Florida Community Hospital in Washington County.
PENSACOLA HOSPITALS TO GET COVID-19 VACCINE wcoapensacola.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wcoapensacola.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
This shipment is to include 270,700 doses.
The Moderna vaccines do not have to be stored in the ultra-cold conditions required by the Pfizer vaccines.
Hospitals on the list to receive Moderna shipments are:
Fort Walton Beach Medical Center (Okaloosa County)
Twin Cities Hospital (Okaloosa County)
Ascension Sacred Heart, (Escambia, Walton)
Baptist Hospital (Escambia)