ATLANTA – The first confirmed
case of coronavirus has surfaced in the Georgia House of Representatives.
Rep. Matthew Gambill,
R-Cartersville, has tested positive for COVID-19, a spokesman for House Speaker
David Ralston reported Thursday night.
Gambill began self-quarantining
the weekend following Friday, March 13, after learning he had been exposed to
someone who tested positive for the virus.
On Monday, March 16, Gambill
was tested for the virus and the results came back on Thursday. He did not attend the one-day special session
of the General Assembly on Monday, March 16, during which lawmakers ratified
the statewide public health emergency Gov. Brian Kemp had declared late the
previous week.
Gambill has experienced only
mild symptoms and remains in isolation at home.
Before Gambill, five state
senators had tested positive for coronavirus: Republicans Brandon Beach of
Alpharetta, Kay Kirkpatrick of Marietta and Bruce Thompson of White, and
Democrats Nikema Williams of Atlanta and Lester Jackson of Savanah.
In the Georgia House, Rep. Angelika Kausche, D-Johns
Creek, told the Johns
Creek Herald she has likely contracted coronavirus
after her husband tested positive last week. Kausche said she decided to forgo
testing since materials needed for the test are in short
supply.
Gov. Brian Kemp calls for vulnerable residents to take precautions as coronavirus spreads in Georgia. (Photo by Beau Evans)
With much of Georgia self-quarantining to
curb the spread of coronavirus, Gov. Brian Kemp and other officials urged the
state’s residents Thursday night to keep practicing social distancing and
personal hygiene as medical supplies run low in hospitals and test results
remain slow.
As of Thursday night, the respiratory
virus had infected 1,643 people and killed 56 in Georgia. The growing number of
patients has taxed the state’s hospitals, particularly in rural areas where
protective gear and intensive-care beds are already in short supply.
Businesses in Georgia have shuttered,
prompting thousands of people to file unemployment claims with the state
Department of Insurance. Public schools that were set to reopen April 1 after a
two-week closure will now stay closed through April 24, per Kemp’s orders.
Health experts have warned the virus
could last for weeks if not months longer and potentially return later in the
year for a second wave as the summer heat passes. Most at risk from dangerous
health impacts from the virus are elderly persons and people with chronic
illnesses.
At a televised town hall Thursday night, Kemp
acknowledged the state needs to boost testing for COVID-19. But he heeded
people across Georgia regardless of the number of positive cases to limit their
physical interactions with other people – a practice called social distancing –
and to protect those with fragile health conditions like the elderly and
chronically ill.
“It is going to be us as Georgians
to beat this virus back,” Kemp said. “There’s no cure
right now, there’s no vaccine, and it is up to all of us to get educated and to
do our part to be victorious in this battle.”
“I can promise you,” he added, “we are doing everything within our power in the state.”
The town hall, which dozens of television
and radio stations carried across the state, included appearances from the
governor, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, state Commissioner of Public
Health Dr. Kathleen Toomey and state Emergency Management Director Homer
Bryson.
Earlier this week, Kemp issued an
executive order requiring many of the state’s most vulnerable populations to
remain indoors and isolated through midday April 6. His shelter-in-place order
applies to people living in nursing homes or long-term care facilities and
people with chronic lung disease or who are currently undergoing cancer
treatment.
The shelter-in-place order also applies
to anyone who has tested positive for coronavirus, is showing symptoms of the virus,
or who has been in close contact with someone who has the virus or is showing
symptoms of it.
The governor has faced criticism from
many state lawmakers and others who want him to issue a statewide
shelter-in-place order. On Wednesday, 36 Democrats in the Georgia House sent
Kemp a letter urging him to take more drastic measures to keep people separated
while the COVID-19 wave rolls over the state.
So far, Kemp has opted to let local
government officials decide whether to impose more restrictive stay-at-home measures
for their areas. Many places like Atlanta and Savannah have already chosen to
do so.
Kemp said Thursday he could take more
drastic action if needed, but that federal guidelines and many health experts
continue to recommend leaving social and business restrictions up to local
officials.
“I still have arrows in the quiver, if
you will, if things get worse,” Kemp said.
Bottoms, responding to a question on
whether the state should follow Atlanta’s lead, said she supports Kemp’s
decision but suggested she might step up restrictions statewide if given the
chance.
“If it were my call, I would have a stay-at-home order for
the entire country,” Bottoms said. “But obviously, that is not my call.”
As with states across the country,
testing for the virus has been limited in Georgia. Nearly 9,000 tests had been
completed statewide as of Thursday night, mostly by commercial labs. Health
experts have called for more testing to help local public health agencies keep
better track of where exactly the virus is spreading.
Kemp said Thursday he expects the state
to have a substantial number of tests completed within the next week or so, but
that the turnaround time for results of between four and five days on average is
still too long.
“We need that test to get back in two
days or a day,” Kemp said.
With medical supplies running low, Kemp
has called on local businesses to step up production and donations of tightly
perforated N-95 masks, ventilators, hospital gowns, gloves, goggles, hand
sanitizers and other items.
Toomey, the state public health
commissioner, said Thursday state officials are working to pump local hospitals
with more medical equipment from the national stockpile and by tapping into
existing ventilators used as teaching tools in technical colleges.
“We’re actually trying to amass the needed amounts before it
comes to that crisis point,” Toomey said.
Toomey did not have a specific count for
how many ventilators total Georgia hospitals may need to avoid the kind of
severe shortage now facing New York, where officials have estimated they need 30,000
more ventilators than they have currently.
“We have a chance to mitigate this in a way that perhaps
they didn’t,” Toomey said, referring to New York.
Outside the Atlanta metro area, the virus
has hit parts of northwest Georgia around Cartersville and Rome and further
south around Albany especially hard.
Roughly one-third of the 48 people who were
reported to have died from coronavirus through noon Thursday in Georgia were
treated at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany. Another roughly 1,300
people in the Albany area are still awaiting results.
Faced with an influx of patients, medical
staff at Phoebe Putney have had to fabricate sturdier breathing masks and
coordinate with other hospitals in the state to take patients as ICU beds fill
up.
Kemp said the best way to help hospitals
like Phoebe Putney cut down on the patient influx is to keep the virus from
spreading through voluntary isolation and social distancing.
“It’s really up to the public to cut down
on the number of people who have to go to the hospital,” Kemp said.
ATLANTA – Georgia
House Speaker David Ralston is asking Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to
delay the May 19 primaries because of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a letter
dated Thursday, Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, suggested holding the primaries no earlier
than June 23.
“You and I
both agree that the right to vote is one of our most cherished freedoms,” the
speaker wrote. “It is a right which, to the extent possible, should be free of
impact from circumstances which create obstacles to its exercise.
“However,
the inescapable truth is that we do not know the duration of the immediate
health peril. Reputable scientists and physicians cannot agree on its duration.”
Raffensperger
already has postponed Georgia’s presidential primary, which was to have been
held this week. Under the current timetable, the presidential voting would take
place May 19 in conjunction with the state’s congressional and legislative primaries.
Earlier this
week, the secretary of state announced that every Georgia voter would receive an
absentee ballot request form, so they could cast their primary ballots by mail
and not risk exposing themselves or others to the virus.
Ralston
praised Raffensperger for coming up with a plan to accommodate the public
health concerns generated by the COVID-19
outbreak. But the speaker said delaying the vote until the summer could allow
voting to take place as usual.
“Pushing the
primary back a month or more gives us more time to allow the situation to
improve so that voters can vote in the manner in which they are most familiar,”
he wrote. “More importantly, it would make our highest priority the health and
safety not only of voters, but our hard-working poll workers and elections
officials.”
ATLANTA –
The coronavirus pandemic is putting an unprecedented demand on unemployment
compensation from Georgians thrown out of work.
The state
Department of Labor processed 12,140 initial unemployment claims during the
week of March 15 through March 21, more than double the previous week’s 5,545
claims.
The
agency is anticipating substantially higher claims in the coming weeks, with
numbers expected to surpass the number of claims filed by unemployed Georgians
during the Great Recession.
To deal
with the exploding demand for economic relief, Gov. Brian Kemp signed an
executive order Thursday authorizing Commissioner of Labor Mark Butler to issue
two emergency rules extending the length of time an individual can collect
benefits from 14 weeks to 26 weeks and providing that the first $300 of wages
earned in a week will not count against eligible unemployment benefits paid.
“As we
work together as a state to combat COVID-19, Commissioner Butler and I are
taking steps to ensure Georgia’s workforce is supported during this challenging
time,” Kemp said. “I ask Georgians to continue to support their local
businesses by getting take-out, tipping well, and ordering your favorite
products online, while also observing social distancing and following the
directives of state and federal public health officials.”
Other
emergency rules were issued last week expanding unemployment eligibility for applicants,
suspending work search requirements and relieving employers of benefit charges
for claims related to COVID-19.
Another rule assures that
employers and non-profits will not be charged for coronavirus-related
benefit claims. This means their current tax rate will not be affected,
relieving them of the additional burden of higher unemployment taxes during the
economic recovery expected to follow the pandemic.
“We
understand Georgia businesses and workers are anxious during the
COVID-19 public health crisis about how to take care of themselves, their
families and their businesses,” Butler said. “We are making
unprecedented modifications to policies to help all
Georgians survive this economic hardship and get us all back to
work.”
Butler said
partial claims should be filed for both full-time and part-time employees.
Filing of partial claims is being mandated for an employer to file on behalf of
employees affected by COVID-19 and will expedite the issuance of payment.
The
Georgia numbers mirrored the filing of unemployment claims across the country.
Nationally, unemployment claims skyrocketed to 3.3 million last week, more than
quadrupling the previous record high.
Information
on filing an unemployment claim, details on how employers must file partial
claims, and resources for other re-employment assistance can be found on the
agency’s webpage at www.gdol.ga.gov
Georgia school officials took steps
Thursday to scrap final exams and relax a wide range of other accountability
rules for the state’s nearly two million public-school students who have been
out of class since last week due to the impacts of coronavirus.
The action Thursday came shortly before Gov. Brian Kemp ordered Georgia’s public schools to remain closed through April 24. The governor previously had ordered schools to stay closed through March 30.
A series of waivers approved Thursday will allow the more than 2,200 public and state schools to be exempted from 18 different requirements under state law such as the Milestone test and other student exams, teacher performance evaluations and course curriculum for the current school year.
The waivers also give local school
districts more freedom to set formal class sizes that dictate state funding
allocations and more leeway on how districts can spend their budgets.
Members of the state Board of Education
unanimously approved the waivers at their monthly meeting Thursday, which was
conducted over the phone.
School districts across Georgia totaling around 1.7 million students have been closed since last Monday under Kemp’s order. His executive order Thursday extended the original April 1 return date by roughly another three weeks.
Kemp is scheduled to host a televised
town hall Thursday night at 8 p.m. to discuss the state’s response to
coronavirus.
Speaking Thursday, State Superintendent
Richard Woods said school systems have done well adapting to the challenge of
keeping students healthy and engaged with virtual learning and remote meal
programs.
“These past few weeks have been unique,
but a lot of great things have been going on,” Woods said.
The board’s action Thursday came after
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced last week state school
superintendents can seek exemptions from year-end tests, teacher evaluations
and other measures that are normally required for states to secure federal
education funding.
Kemp also gave the state school board
authority to approve the waivers as part of his emergency powers that the General
Assembly granted him earlier this month.
