Thomasville Medical Center is lifting restrictions on visitors 18 years and under for the first time in nearly six months as the number of H1N1 cases in the area continue declining.

Novant Health, TMC’s parent company, announced on Monday that all its facilities, including Forsyth Medical Center and Medical Park Hospital in Winston-Salem, are lifting the restrictions that temporarily prohibited children 18 and under from visiting its hospitals amidst the H1N1 flu outbreak last fall. Visiting restrictions had been in place since September.

“We did it across the whole corporation,” Jane wilder, TMC’s director of community relations, said. “We made the collective decision to lift all the visitor restrictions.”

The decision to remove the restrictions was based on three factors — a sustained low level of H1N1 cases in the community, a high rate of vaccinations among the pediatric population and a large number of children have had the virus since last April.

“We’re seeing the number of people reporting with flu-like symptoms has leveled off,” said Wilder. “People seem to be doing well with good hand washing procedures and things of that nature and we know this has been an inconvenience people in terms of visitations. We appreciate everyone working with us and we figured it was time to lift [the restrictions].”

Novant officials said that visitor restrictions could be reinstated in the event there is a resurgence in the spread of the H1N1 virus. Wilder said H1N1 is different from other flu strains because it’s not seasonal, forcing TMC to take extra precautions in order to prevent any further spread of the virus. Imposing the restrictions helped prevent the virus from further spreading to those most vulnerable.

“That was one of the reasons we waited was to see if there was going to be another wave,” Wilder said. “With the community’s help, I think we were able to keep it from being much larger than it could have been. I think it was helpful to restrict the visitation and it did make a difference. For the most part, people worked with us and realized we were doing it out of concern for them so their children wouldn’t get sick as well as someone already in the hospital. I think most people understood the reasoning behind it and were willing to work with us.”

With the restrictions lifted, visitation privileges will return to normal, meaning anybody can come and visit during visiting hours under the age of 18. While Wilder said she would like think another restriction would not put in place, if the need arose again, similar measures could be implemented.

Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or duke@tvilletimes.com.