An outbreak of Covid-19 has hit Cornwall's hospitals.

As a result, parts of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust have been closed this week and visiting will be restricted to "exceptional circumstances" and must be approved first.

The Trust said that the current outbreaks have been linked to two visitors to its hospitals and warned anyone with any symptoms of Covid or any infectious condition to not visit.

A spokesperson for the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust said: "We have seen some areas of the Trust closed this week due to Covid-19. Visiting to these areas will be restricted to those where exceptional circumstances apply and the Nurse in Charge has approved it.

"This is in-line with our visiting policy for outbreaks and closed areas.

"As a reminder to anyone visiting the hospital, if you have a cold, cough, upset stomach or any other infectious condition we ask you not to do so because of the risk of infecting others. We have linked two visitors to our current outbreaks.

"Our visiting arrangements are specific to different areas but all need to be booked in advance.

"More information on visiting patient in hospital can be found here https://www.royalcornwall.nhs.uk/visiting-hospitals/visiting/"

Exceptional circumstances include end of life care, when patients may have increased visiting with no restriction on the number of visitors or length of visit. This is at the discretion of the ward or unit manager. The patient does not need to have and end of life care plan (blue book) in place for these criteria to be applied.

The areas that have been closed have not been identified, and the hospital is asking for all visits to be arranged in advance with wards.

New general visiting arrangements came into effect on August 24, which state that under normal conditions patients will only be allowed a maximum of two visitors, reduced to one visitor or carer in admitting areas.

Visits will be for a maximum of an hour per day and the two visitors can be different people each day but they will need to come together.

All visitors must use the hand hygiene facilities before and after visiting, wear appropriate PPE – such as a surgical face mask – in areas where staff are required to wear a mask and there will be no toilet facilities on the ward available to visitors.

However, some wards have different rules, such as the neonatal unit when parents can generally visit at any time and be accompanied by another person between 2pm and 7pm, and the delivery suite/birth centre, where usually two partners may visit at any time.

Wheal Rose and Wheal Fortune also have different visiting hours, available on the link.