Elizabeth Mendoza 
RGV – Correctional facilities and hospitals have adjusted visitation policies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. At the Willacy County State Jail, normal visitation days fall on a Saturday or Sunday. But since the Coronavirus outbreak, the county jail has taken precautionary measures by changing their visitation hours.
The jail is run by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and they have since ordered the halt of any kind of visitation hours until further notice. Trainee manager, Joseph Adams says the jail is taking other measures such as sanitizing waiting rooms, visiting areas, and restrooms.
“Sanitation and cleaning continues every day in our facility. That gets done several times a day, in fact before any employee can even come into the facility our temperatures are read by medical. Therefore you know if we’re sick we obviously can’t come in,” said Adams.
The Willacy County State Jail isn’t the only place changing its visitation guidelines. Since the Coronavirus outbreak, the South Texas Health System has since changed visitation guidelines at all facilities.
In a Facebook post, Texas Health Systems stated, “In response to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19) we have suspended all visitation for the health and safety of everyone in our care.”
Since the new changes in city and county regulations, Texas Health Systems has been taking new safety precautionary measures to prevent the potential spread of the virus, starting with social distancing. Which for now means that each patient is limited to at least one visitor at a time.
Right now the Texas Health and Human Services have temporarily suspended all non-essential visits to state hospitals and living centers across Texas due to COVID-19 fears. In some cases, visitors will only be allowed if a patient is at end-of-life care upon visitation they will be subjected to temperature checks before entering any facility and will be asked for travel history.
To find out more information about the latest guidelines and recommendations, you can visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website www.cdc.gov.
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