(CNN) A health care system in New York is no longer allowing visitors, including partners, for its patients about to give birth, citing coronavirus risk.

"For the time being, we really do need to exclude all visitors, including partners, for women admitted in labor," Dr. Dena Goffman, chief of obstetrics at Columbia University Medical Center, said Sunday during a daily leadership briefing for the NewYork-Presbyterian health care system.

The move was a "very difficult decision and not one taken lightly," Goffman said.

NewYork-Presbyterian has also made the decision to test all women in labor for Covid-19 who are admitted to labor and delivery units, regardless of symptoms.

Goffman said there have been a number of patients with few to no symptoms upon admission, and others with atypical symptoms, who later tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

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