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As of press time on Friday (prior to the 2 p.m. update from the governor’s office,) 29 New Jerseyans have tested presumption positive for the coronavirus.

Hospitals and health systems across the state have taken steps to limit the spread of the COVID-19 disease.

Hackensack Meridian Health is restricting visitation across all of its hospitals. The network-wide restriction takes effect March 13.

“We are taking these proactive precautions to protect our patients, team members, and the communities we serve,” said Dr. Jerry Zuckerman, vice president, Infection Prevention and Control at Hackensack Meridian Health.

“Our care team is sensitive to the separation this restriction causes our patients and their loved ones, but we believe this measure of protection is essential at this time to keep people safe,” he added.

These visitor restrictions will be reevaluated in 30 days.

RWJBarnabas Health has placed temporary visiting restrictions at all if its hospitals and health care facilities with no visitors under the age of 16 permitted and visitation limited to one person per visit in the adult medical and behavioral health inpatient units, all labor and delivery units (only significant other or support persons can visit), and all emergency departments.

Dr. Tucker Woods, chief medical officer, senior administrative officer, CarePoint Health Christ Hospital, where there are currently no patients who have tested positive for COVID-19, said that the health system implemented new visitor policies based on New Jersey Hospital Association recommendations.

Tours of maternity units have been cancelled and CarePoint is reviewing possible adjustments to cafeteria access by some visitors. Hospitals in the CarePoint system are also stepping up preventive measures including disinfecting of high contact surfaces such elevator buttons.

Effective March 13, the system’s Hoboken University Medical Center is restricting all visitation including at the main hospital, transitional care units and rehabilitation departments.

Woods said that the health system started preparing for a potential COVID-19 problem in December when it observed what was happening in China. The health system created a surge plan for all three hospitals that includes triage and diagnostics for patients coming to the hospital as well as prevention protocols.

“At Christ Hospital there are more than 500 physicians so instead of re-training all of them on proper use of personal equipment we created a core team that would care for Coronavirus patients,” said Woods.

The plan calls for patients who test positive to go to a certain floor in the hospital and be treated by a “core team” comprised of emergency room and intensive care unit physicians, hospitalists and a lead physician.

“Because there is a global supply chain disruption of N95 respirators – a special type of face mask – we created rules to have a hierarchy of control so that we wouldn’t deplete these masks too quickly,” said Woods.

CarePoint Health is also collaborating closely with community stakeholders, local government, county office of emergency management officials.

According to industry experts, it is too soon to tell what kind of financial impact these visitation restrictions will have on hospitals health systems.

A CarePoint Health official said that irrespective of insurance, any decline in emergency department visits for example, has a direct impact on the facility’s revenue. The official added that in the current emergency situation, they are looking at prevention strategies because the community’s safety comes first.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 3:55 p.m. EST on March 13, 2020 to include information about Hoboken University Medical Center’s visitor policy.