It is imperative that families of COVID-19 patients who are out of I.C.U should be allowed to visit. Patients leave the ICU when they have recovered to the point where they do not need intensive monitoring, and when they are no longer requiring any treatments that can only be given in an intensive care unit. Most patients are transferred to what is called a step-down unit, where they are still very closely monitored before or transferred to a regular hospital floor and then hopefully home.

We the family members must be allowed to visit and support our loved ones. One family member only to visit by following protocol and relieve the front-line workers from attending to their patients for non-medical matters and prevent accidents. My husband spent 25 days in the hospital 23 in I.C.U. recovering from COVID-19 and been through so many bumps back and forth to ICU meanwhile we the family have no knowledge until we get the call hours or a day later. This has been such a tough year for the medical community and being able to support loved ones through hardship and in the worst scenarios, say final goodbye.

The nurses are over worked and have become the surrogate for these patients who are suffering alone without any family member to sit by their side and care for them and pray with them. It's affecting patients mental health due to stress which is leading to anxiety, fear and loneliness. We the family are suffering not knowing their condition and we're living with anxiety day to day. Let us be there to assist, feed them & help with their gadgets i.e. iPad.  The hospital provides virtual workers non-medical staff who come in everyday and connect patients with their families through virtual calls on iPad.  Why shouldn't that be us? Why would a stranger is hired by the hospital to connect us and there is no privacy at all. We will wear PPE's and follow protocol and let us support our loved ones and the hard working front-line workers, let's boost their morale because it's good for the well being of everyone involved.