With fewer flu patients locally, Marshalltown Medical & Surgical Center is easing off its screening process for visitors.

The hospital will now just have information, hand sanitizer and masks available at its entrances and not a person screening every visitor. Also, three more entrances will be open aside from the emergency room and main entrance.

MMSC will still limit visitors to one per patient and those 18 and over only. Also, MMSC will not let those with flu-like symptoms visit as staff will be keeping an eye out for these individuals.

Liz Zuercher, public relations manager at MMSC, said the visiting restrictions will continue through seasonal flu season and are in line with other hospitals in the state.

She mentioned the fact they are easing the screening process is good news but they still ask those who are sick not to visit the hospital.

The MMSC Women's Care visitors are limited to the father or significant other, grandparents and siblings of the new baby who are not ill.

Marshall County Public Health Nurse Pat Thompson said they have vaccinated about 2,000 people with the H1N1 flu vaccine in the high-risk and priority groups in the county and now they are moving to school children.

There are plans for clinics at elementary schools this week and they will eventually reach older students in the county.

"We are working hard," Thompson said.

She said it is too early to predict when the vaccination supply locally will be plentiful enough to administer the vaccine to the general public. With fears nationally about the H1N1 virus calming down, Thompson said residents still should get the vaccine.

"They need to get it because the flu season is not over yet," she said. "It can resurface."

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Contact Andrew Potter at 641-753-6611 or apotter@timesrepublican.com