ATLANTA – A
second state senator has tested positive for coronavirus.
Sen. Kay
Kirkpatrick, R-Marietta, announced on her Facebook page Friday night that she
began to self-quarantine last Saturday night after developing a fever. She was
tested for COVID-19 on Sunday, and the result came back positive on Friday.
Kirkpatrick stayed
home from the General Assembly’s one-day special session on Monday, as
lawmakers ratified Gov. Brian Kemp’s declaration of a public health emergency
in Georgia.
“I have
followed the strict protocol recommended by [the Georgia Department of Public
Health] and am comfortable that I have not put anyone at risk,” Kirkpatrick
wrote. “Although I am in the at-risk age group, I am blessed to be very healthy
and thankful that I am recovering without complications.”
All senators
and their staffs were recommended to self-quarantine after Sen. Brandon Beach,
R-Alpharetta, tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Kirkpatrick
suggested on her Facebook posting that everyone follow the recommendations of
the federal Centers for Disease Control and the DPH to continue social
distancing, frequent handwashing and cleaning of surfaces.
Gov. Brian Kemp gives an update on coronavirus in Georgia on March 9, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Gov.
Brian Kemp Friday ordered more than $19.5 million transferred from the Governor’s
Emergency Fund to go toward the state’s response to coronavirus.
Before
suspending the 2020 legislative session last week because of the pandemic, the
General Assembly added $100 million at the governor’s request to the mid-year
state budget to deal with the crisis. The governor signed the spending plan
earlier this week.
The money
will help the state Department of Public Health and the Georgia Emergency
Management and Homeland Security Agency buy medical supplies and equipment.
Also on Friday,
Kemp filled out the rosters of four committees he announced last month when he
formed a Coronavirus Task Force of state agency heads, legislators, business
leaders, health-care executives and other subject matter experts. Separately,
the committees will address the economic impact of coronavirus, emergency
preparedness, primary care providers and how coronavirus is affecting Georgia’s
homeless.
“In February, we formed the Coronavirus Task Force with a
focus on preparing for COVID-19 and its effects,” Kemp said. “Now, as we
mitigate the spread of the virus, these committees will address the specific
impacts that COVID-19 will have on communities, industry sectors, our health-care
system, and emergency preparedness.
“I have full confidence in these committees to serve the needs
of all Georgians during this challenging time. In the weeks ahead, we will
continue to ensure that our state stands ready for any scenario.”
State Fiscal
Economic Jeffrey Dorfman will chair the task force’s Economic Impact Committee.
Georgia Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, who is a physician, will head the Primary
Care Provider Committee.
John King,
the state’s insurance commissioner, will chair the Emergency Preparedness
Committee. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will lead the Committee for the
Homeless and Displaced.
Georgia Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey talks about coronavirus at a recent news conference. (Photo by Beau Evans)
ATLANTA – Coronavirus
cases in Georgia and deaths from the virus continued to climb on Friday.
As of noon
Friday, the state Department of Public Health reported 420 cases, a big jump
from the 287 cases reported on Thursday. Thirteen patients have died from
coronavirus, up from 10 the previous day.
While
elderly Georgians are considered most vulnerable to contracting the virus, 41%
of those testing positive for coronavirus as of Friday were between the ages of
18 and 59. Thirty-three percent of the current cases were Georgians 60 years of
age or older.
Between the
state and private labs, 2,386 Georgians have been tested for coronavirus. Gov.
Brian Kemp and state health officials are calling for prioritizing the limited
number of available test kits so that the elderly, health-care workers and
other first responders are tested first.
While Kemp
has not imposed a mandatory stay-home order, a strategy the governors of California and New York have resorted to
during the last two days, he is urging Georgians to practice social distancing
and wash their hands frequently. The governor is leaving decisions on closing
businesses up to local governments and the companies themselves.
Coronavirus
now has expanded to 50 Georgia counties. Fulton County leads the way with 79 cases
as of Friday, followed by Cobb County with 45, Bartow County with 40, DeKalb
County with 35 and Gwinnett County with 20.
ATLANTA – When the legislative session
resumes, Georgia lawmakers will take up a measure originally aimed at bringing
better public transit options to people in rural parts of Georgia, especially
for seniors who already struggle to shop and attend medical appointments.
They view the move as a disappointing end
to legislation that promised more money and tighter management for rural
transit options geared toward helping older Georgians.
Lawmakers behind the changes, meanwhile,
say counties and cities can already tap into state and federal funds to expand
their local transit systems – an option they say makes unnecessary a key
proposal in the bill to create a new oversight agency for rural transit.
The bill, sponsored by Rep. Kevin Tanner,
initially would have consolidated transit functions carried out by three
different state agencies into a new department tasked with overseeing transit
projects via regional managers, who would be spread out across Georgia into multi-county
“mobility zones.”
Crucially, Tanner’s original bill also included ways to raise new state funds for buses and transit workers, either by letting counties levy new sales taxes dedicated to transit services or by charging a flat fee on ride-hailing trips run by Uber and Lyft.
Tanner, R-Dawsonville, previously said
the measure would give Georgia transit officials more tools to boost transit
options for seniors and others in isolated rural areas.
Rep. Kevin Tanner (R-Dawsonville).
Georgia has around 200,000 residents age 70 and older who no longer drive and have a tough time reaching grocery stores, doctor’s offices and other important places on their own, according to a Georgia Health Policy Center report from 2018. Officials expect the population of Georgians 60 years and older to double by 2040.
There are no public transit systems operating in 36 of the state’s 159 counties, according to the Georgia Department of Transportation. That equates to about 1 million Georgians who do not have a local public transit system, GDOT reported in 2017.
While most of the 80 transit systems
operating in rural areas allow riders to cross county lines on an as-needed
basis, some do not. That gap creates a problem for seniors who need to reach
hospitals or other essential services, said Vicki Johnson, chairwoman of the
Georgia Council on Aging.
Senior advocates like Johnson were
counting on Tanner’s bill to help increase more cross-county transit options
and broader regional public transit in underserved areas.
“We saw it as being very advantageous to
coordinate with a single administrative unit in designing programs that would
provide expanded transit for seniors,” Johnson said. “We thought this regional
approach would be much better suited to their needs, especially in rural
Georgia.”
Tanner’s bill had backing from several
top lawmakers including House Speaker David Ralston, R-Blue Ridge, and House
Appropriations Committee Chairman Terry England, R-Auburn, who was a
co-sponsor. The bill cleared the state House last year but hit a roadblock in
the Georgia Senate, where lawmakers earlier this month stripped it down to the
studs.
Now, the bill deals only with
administrative rules for the Atlanta-region Transit Link Authority (the ATL)
and an extension on tying the state’s motor fuels tax rate to the consumer price
index.
Instead of creating a new department, the
three state agencies tasked with public transit – GDOT, the Department of Human
Services, and the Department of Community Health – are considering a pilot
program for a regional commission to administer all rural, senior and
non-emergency medical transportation services.
“The pilot will offer fully coordinated
rural transit and human services transportation at the regional level and
provide improved accessibility and ease of use for riders,” said Carol Comer,
director of GDOT’s Intermodal Division.
Sen. Steve Gooch, who spearheaded the
bill’s gutting, said rural counties can already tap into federal grants divvied
out by the state that help pay for public buses and on-demand shuttles. But
some local governments choose not to pursue those funds, he said.
That lack of interest made the proposals
in Tanner’s bill a tough pill to swallow for state agencies wary of
consolidating, Gooch said.
“There has been very little if any demand
for a statewide regional area for public transit in rural areas,” said Gooch,
R-Dahlonega.
Sen. Steve Gooch (R-Dahlonega).
Comer said counties do have access to
several different federal grants for rural transit, which require local
matching funds. The state Department of Community Health also works with 78
counties to provide transit services for seniors and persons with disabilities,
she said.
GDOT is wrapping up a 30-year outlook plan set for release next month that will recommend expanding transit services for seniors and others in rural areas, Comer said. But it will take more money to do that, she said.
“It is important to note that absent
additional funding it will be more difficult to incentivize counties to
participate, making transit expansions and enhancements challenging to
implement,” Comer said.
Gooch pointed to a separate measure,
House Bill 105, that aims to drum up new funds for public transit via a 50-cent
fee on ride-hailing trips. It is estimated to raise between $24 million and $45
million in its first year if passed.
That bill still needs final Senate
approval and will have to be amended first to make it clear transit services
and not just road construction would qualify for the funds. Gooch said transit
officials would track which counties are taking advantage of the new fee-based
funds collected from Uber and Lyft.
“I think this is a good first step in
setting up some more funding for transit,” Gooch said. “Once the funding’s in
place, then we’ll see what kind of demand there might be for some regional
coordination.”
The General Assembly hit a pause earlier this month amid the coronavirus outbreak in Georgia, where hundreds of COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in recent days. Lawmakers will return to finish the 2020 session as soon as Ralston and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan decide to summon them back.
ATLANTA – Georgia’s
two U.S. senators and 15 of their congressional colleagues are working to make
sure the coronavirus pandemic isn’t allowed to stem the flow of temporary
agricultural workers into the U.S.
Republican
Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler have signed onto a bipartisan letter dated
Thursday asking Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting
Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia
to take steps to ensure access to temporary farm workers.
“We
understand the importance of maintaining public health safety during this time
and appreciate the administration’s actions to minimize the impacts of the
ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” the senators wrote. “However, there are substantial
national security concerns that will arise should our farmers not have the
labor they need.
“Food security is national security. We believe suspending
visa services that our farmers rely on will be detrimental to families across
our nation trying to put food on the table.”
The letter follows this week’s decision by the federal
government to put new restrictions on the temporary farmworker program. While
interviews are not being conducted of farmworkers from Mexico who wish to enter
the U.S., guest workers who have previously worked in this country under the
program can be granted interview waivers if their visas expired within the past
year.
The letter goes on to urge the Cabinet members to provide
maximum flexibility to consulate staff in processing applications for H-2A
visas while putting protocols in place to protect public health in the U.S. if
coronavirus cases increase in Mexico or other countries that participate in the
visa program.
Perdue and Loeffler were joined as signatories on the
letter by 12 other Republican senators, two Democratic senators and a GOP
member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
