Pilot program for visitors to hosps

ALBANY — Select New York City hospitals will be part of a pilot program allowing patients to have visitors, Gov. Cuomo announced Tuesday.

Nine hospitals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx will participate in the two-week test run as the city slowly begins to recover from the coronavirus crisis.

“It is terrible to have someone in the hospital and then that person is isolated, not being able to see their family or friends,” Cuomo said.

“I understand the health reasons for that, we were afraid of the virus spread, but this is a pilot project to see if we can bring visitors in and do it safely.”

Heartbroken friends and relatives of COVID-19 patients have been unable to comfort loved ones hospitalized with the virus in recent weeks as visitations have essentially been banned in New York since March 18.

Under the program, which will start next week and includes 16 medical centers statewide, visitors will get their temperature checked and wear personal protective equipment and masks, Cuomo said.

Montefiore and Jacobi medical centers in the Bronx; Maimonides Medical Center and Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn; Mount Sinai hospitals in Queens and Manhattan, and Lenox Hill, NYU Langone and New YorkPresbyterian Hospital Lower Manhattan will a take part in the program.

“This is getting visitors back into hospitals with the right precaution, with the right equipment,” Cuomo said.