South Eastern Sydney Local Health District (SESLHD) has introduced tough new restrictions on visitors in St George and Sutherland public hospitals to minimise the risk of coronavirus transmission.
The measures, which came into effect today, apply to all wards, including maternity, and limit visitors to one person at a time, who must be a "partner, carer, guardian or nominated significant other".
A SESLHD spokeswoman said the new guidelines for visiting patients in its hospitals and other facilities was part of measures "to reduce the risk of COVID-19 (coronavirus) spreading".
"SESLHD has introduced changes to our policy covering visits to hospitals and inpatient facilities," the spokeswoman said.
"We ask that patients are only visited by their partner, carer, guardian or nominated significant other and that they have only one visitor at a time.
"All wards of the hospitals are taking measures to reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading and will be adopting this new visitor policy.
"In accordance with current advice, visitors must not enter any hospital or facility if they have a fever or a cold and flu-like illness or they have been overseas in the last 14 days or they have been in contact with anyone who has COVID-19 in the last 14 days."
According to a Catholic parish bulletin in the area over the weekend, chaplains were also ordered to stay away from many Sutherland Hospital wards.
"Sutherland Hospital advises chaplains are not to visit: emergency department, oncology, Warada (respiratory ward) and the ICU due to coronavirus dangers," it said.
The latest measures come a week after SESLHD said it had no plans "at this stage" to follow Sydney Adventist Hospital at Wahroonga and ban visitors from maternity units.
"At this stage ... we strongly encourage anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms to not visit patients in hospital," the spokeswoman said.
"(SESLHD) encourages individuals who are sick to avoid visiting our hospitals, unless they are attending to seek medical attention.
"This is to limit exposure to infection for the patients in our care. This policy applies to all units throughout our hospitals and services, including maternity care sites.
"SESLHD also supports the communications from NSW Health, requesting that those at risk of COVID-19 follow the medical advice provided to them and not visit our hospitals at this time unless it is to seek medical attention."
NSW Chief Health Officer Dr Kerry Chant previously asked people to adopt a "commonsense approach", including refraining from visiting anyone in hospital if they had even mild symptoms of any illness, washing and sanitising their hands when entering or leaving any wards and keeping visitor numbers down to one or two.