Limited hospital activity due to Covid outbreak

The new Omicron variant is present among the at least 25 staff at Tórshavn’s National Hospital who recently tested Covid positive.

This has led to immediate structural changes in the hospital, including the G4 and A3 surgical bed wards merging and all non-urgent surgical procedures being postponed.

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Further changes will be made to limit the infection spread in the hospital.

Only emergency patients will be accepted into the G4 ward until further notice, and other wards at the National Hospital and the other two hospitals will be called upon to help ease the pressure.

All hospital activities affected

All activities at the National Hospital will be affected over the coming week in an effort to limit the number of new patients entering the hospital. The new measures include:

• Outpatient appointments will, to the extent possible, be conducted over the phone. If this is not possible, these appointments will be postponed.

• Relatives of patients may only visit the wards in exceptional circumstances, and any such visits must be pre-arranged with the relevant ward.

• The maternity ward will also close to visitors. Spouses are allowed in the ward during birth.

• The x-ray department will only carry out emergency scans over the coming week.

• Only urgent blood tests will be conducted in the blue outpatient clinic.

Additional safety precautions

All staff and patients are required to wear protective face masks, and anyone entering the hospital will be required to present a valid digital Covid pass or a paper equivalent.

Surgery patients will be required to show a negative Covid test result no older than 72 hours.

The new measures come into force with immediate effect and will remain in force for at least one week, according to a National Hospital press release.

For further information about Covid-19 in the Faroes, including daily figures, visit corona.fo.

Read the Faroese version of this article here.

More Faroese News in English.