Gov. Brian Kemp said Friday he favors resuming in-person classes for Georgia students instead of remote learning methods ahead of the upcoming school year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governor also doubled down on his opposition to mask mandates in Georgia even as he urged people to wear them for the next several weeks to help curb a recent increase in positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
At a news conference Friday morning, Kemp and other state officials highlighted new guidance for schools on how to reopen classrooms in the fall and respond when a student or teacher is infected.
The governor said he understands fears over returning to school with the virus still spreading but that students risk losing valuable learning and social growth opportunities by remaining at home after in-person classes were canceled statewide in March and students switched to online studies.
“I am a believer that kids need to be in the classroom,” Kemp said. “And we’re working with the schools on doing that.”
Kemp’s comments came shortly after he and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr filed suit to block a mask mandate in Atlanta as well as moves by Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms to reimpose certain stay-at-home and business closures lifted in May.
Reiterating his position, Kemp called city and county mask mandates “unenforceable” and pressed Georgians – especially young people – to “do the right thing” by voluntarily wearing masks, social distancing, washing hands and following statewide business restrictions.
“We can argue about a mandate for masks or not,” Kemp said. “But all the people arguing agree that we should wear a mask.”
On Friday, Kemp and other officials noted they talked with top national health experts this week about how to safely reopen schools in the coming weeks.
The state Department of Education has issued guidelines and recommendations aimed at helping local school districts decide how to hold classes in the fall via a mix of regular in-person classes and online instruction options.
State School Superintendent Richard Woods agreed students would be better served returning to school as normal but that his focus is on student, teacher and staff safety.
“The first day of school will be the first day of school,” Woods said Friday. “You can expect hiccups. You can expect challenges. But I guarantee your kids will be safe, your teachers will be safe and we will learn.”
School and health officials are also focusing on how to avoid the need to shut down a school in the event a student tests positive or there is a minor outbreak, said Dr. Kathleen Toomey, the state’s public health commissioner.
She said epidemiologists working one-on-one with schools would help guide that decision, factoring in a classroom’s size and the extent of a person’s exposure to others in the school.
“We will make those decisions based on the situations in every school,” Toomey said. “Every situation will be different.”
Already, around 2 million masks and 3,000 infrared thermometers have been shipped to schools across Georgia, said the state’s emergency management director, Homer Bryson.
The state also plans to send schools another batch of safety and sanitizing gear including 1.5 million youth-size cloth masks, 1 million disposable masks, thousands of hand sanitizing stations, gallons of gel and wipes, and 100,000 clear masks for deaf and hard-of-hearing students and teachers, Bryson said.
Per the guidelines and governor’s orders, students would not be required to wear masks but they would be “strongly recommended” to do so, particularly when in close quarters.
Gov. Brian Kemp speaks at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta shortly before releasing a lawsuit against Atlanta’s COVID-19 mask mandate on July 16, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Gov. Brian Kemp is suing Atlanta to block the city’s enforcement of a mask mandate and resumed stay-at-home guidelines amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to court documents filed Thursday.
The lawsuit, filed by Kemp and Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, seek to have a Fulton County Superior Court judge declare unlawful a citywide masking requirement imposed by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms last week.
It marks an intense ratcheting up of the dispute between Kemp, who has insisted on leaving masks as recommended but voluntary measures, and several Georgia mayors like Bottoms, who want local control over mandatory measures to help curb the virus’ spread.
The governor’s office has frequently stressed his executive orders – which make mask-wearing “strongly encouraged” but not required – override any city or county actions that go beyond the state’s COVID-19 rules.
Along with blocking the city’s mask orders, Kemp and Carr’s lawsuit asks the judge to prohibit Bottoms and the Atlanta City Council from approving any local orders that might be considered more restrictive than the governor’s.
That would include resuming limits on public gatherings to 10 persons and recent steps taken to reimpose a shelter-at-home order for city residents, according to the suit.
Additionally, the suit seeks to bar Bottoms from “issuing press releases, or making statements to the press, that she has the authority to impose more or less restrictive measures than are ordered” by the governor.
Bottoms, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, cast the governor’s priorities as misplaced in light of the impacts of the virus, which has sickened hundreds of thousands of people in Georgia and killed thousands more.
“A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing,” Bottoms said Thursday. “If being sued by the State is what it takes to save lives in Atlanta, then we will see them in court.”
Kemp lashed out at Bottoms in a statement sent along with the suit, accusing the mayor of “reckless actions” and vowing to “put people over pandemic politics.”
“This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times,” Kemp said. “These men and women are doing their very best to put food on the table for their families while local elected officials shutter businesses and undermine economic growth.”
Kemp is scheduled to hold a news conference on COVID-19 early Friday morning.
Bottoms and other local officials from Savannah, Augusta, Athens and elsewhere have pleaded with the governor in recent weeks to allow them to enforce mask mandates in their communities if he will not impose one for the state.
Many public health experts have also urged Georgians to wear masks in public as positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue increasing in the weeks following Memorial Day weekend in late May.
After weeks of testy back-and-forth, the battle between Kemp and Bottoms kicked up a notch Wednesday when the governor issued new orders explicitly preventing local governments from imposing mandates for masks, face shields and other kinds of virus-protecting gear.
Bottoms and Savannah Mayor Van Johnson rejected the move. Johnson, who was first to impose a citywide mask mandate on July 1, wrote on Twitter late Wednesday night that “Governor Kemp does not give a damn about us.”
“In Savannah, we will continue to keep the faith and follow the science,” Johnson said. “Masks will continue to be available!”
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 131,000 people in Georgia had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel strain of coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic. It had killed 3,104 Georgians.
This story has been updated to revise the headline and include an additional comment from Mayor Bottoms.
Gov. Brian Kemp discusses health-care legislation he signed at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta on July 16, 2020. (Photo by Beau Evans)
Gov. Brian Kemp signed a spate of bills Thursday that passed out of the 2020 legislative session on curbing surprise medical charges, temporarily licensing out-of-state dentists and extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers.
At a signing ceremony Thursday, Kemp highlighted the importance of signing health-care focused legislation as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to hit Georgia. More than 131,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in Georgia as of Thursday afternoon, including 3,104 people who have died.
“This is certainly an important moment and a historic step forward in my opinion for Georgia when it comes to health care,” Kemp said during the ceremony at Wellstar Kennestone Hospital in Marietta. ”Frankly, it couldn’t come at a better time as our state and our country face the greatest public health challenge that we’ve seen.”
State lawmakers passed numerous bills in the coronavirus-interrupted session that wrapped up last month. Many still await Kemp’s signature including COVID-19 liability protections for businesses and hospitals, home-delivery alcohol services and an excise tax on vaping products.
House Bill 888, by Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville, aims to reduce the chances for patients to receive unexpectedly high hospital bills by requiring health insurers and health-care providers to settle cost disputes arising from emergency medical procedures performed by out-of-network providers.
Its companion legislation, House Bill 789, creates a rating system for hospitals based on how many medical specialty groups like anesthesiologists and radiologists are contracted. The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Mark Newton, R-Augusta, said the intent is to promote “truth-in-advertising” that can help curb surprise billing practices.
Another health-care piece of legislation, House Bill 1114 authorizes the state to apply for a federal waiver extending Medicaid coverage to new mothers for up to six months after birth instead of the current limit of two months. Sponsored by Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, the bill also extends Medicaid coverage for breast-feeding and lactation care.
House Bill 521, by Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, allows dentists licensed outside the state to temporarily practice dentistry in Georgia if they are serving low-income patients at clinics or charitable events. The temporary licenses will be valid for five days.
Other legislation Kemp signed Thursday includes:
House Bill 932 (by Gaines): Allows podiatrists in Georgia to organize professional corporations with other doctors and revises certification rules for podiatrists performing foot amputations.
House Bill 578 (by Rep. Katie Dempsey, R-Rome): Permits the state Department of Human Services to conduct criminal background checks on volunteers and interns.
Senate Bill 28 (by Sen. Lester Jackson, D-Savannah): Prohibits insurance copayments for health benefits plans from being set in a way that could “unfairly deny health-care services.”
Senate Bill 395 (by Rep. Ben Watson, R-Savannah): Sets terms for investments in mutual, trust and retirement funds, and revises terms on reserving proceeds from the sale of hospitals for indigent care.
Coronavirus has sickened tens of thousands and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Gov. Brian Kemp renewed orders late Wednesday to keep Georgia’s current social distancing and safety rules imposed through the end of July to discourage the spread of coronavirus in place for businesses, schools and public gatherings.
The latest executive order also contains new language requiring that any masking mandates put in place by city or county governments that go beyond the state’s voluntary measures “are suspended.”
That move could set up a legal battle between Kemp and local officials in Atlanta, Savannah, Athens and several other communities in Georgia where mask requirements were recently imposed.
The governor’s order arrived hours before a slate of COVID-19 restrictions were set to expire at Wednesday’s end. Kemp has executive authority to issue emergency orders through at least Aug. 11.
As of Wednesday afternoon, nearly 128,000 people in Georgia had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel strain of coronavirus that sparked a global pandemic. It had killed 3,091 Georgians.
While a host of Georgia businesses have been allowed to reopen since May, they are still required by the governor’s orders to abide by several measures to keep people separated from each other, maintain clean surfaces and send workers home if they show symptoms of coronavirus.
A shelter-in-place order has been in effect since late March for Georgians in long-term care facilities and those with chronic medical conditions including lung disease, moderate to severe asthma, severe heart disease, compromised immune systems, severe obesity and diabetes.
In particular, large gatherings in Georgia have been limited to no more than 50 people if they cannot keep at least six feet apart. That applies to restaurants, bars and other popular gathering spots.
Conventions, sports stadiums and performance venues were allowed to reopen July 1 under distancing, sanitizing and signage rules. But Kemp has suggested he could pull the plug on fall sports like football if people disregard wearing masks.
Kemp’s new order says any city or county rules “requiring persons to wear face coverings, masks, face shields” or other kinds of protective equipment in public “are suspended to the extent that they are more restrictive than” the state’s guidelines.
Asked whether the new language is aimed specifically at preventing local governments from imposing mask mandates, Kemp’s office reiterated the governor’s previous position on the matter.
“We’ve been clear in previous orders and statements that local mask mandates are unenforceable,” said Candice Broce, Kemp’s communications director. “The Governor has encouraged Georgians to wear them voluntarily for months now.”
Mask-wearing in Georgia has been a testy subject in recent weeks. Kemp remains under pressure to impose mandatory masking requirements as positive COVID-19 cases continue rising in the state, and several cities have ordered residents to wear facial coverings in public.
The governor’s latest order came shortly Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey placed her state under a mask mandate through July. Several other states have also required masking.
Kemp’s statewide rules for Georgia so far have “strongly encouraged” voluntary mask-wearing even as many health experts and local elected officials have urged him to take a mandatory approach or at least let counties and cities set their own masking rules.
To date, Kemp’s orders on COVID-19 have required city and county governments to adopt the state’s rules rather than impose their own.
Last week, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued a citywide masking requirement that argued the governor’s statewide orders do not explicitly address mask mandates, posing a legal loophole for local governments to adopt their own measures.
Kemp’s office has dismissed the Atlanta mask mandate as unenforceable.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson pressed Kemp again Wednesday to grant local governments leeway to require public masking. He said in a news conference the city’s mask mandate has prompted residents and visitors alike to wear masks amid the summer season.
“It’s been very clear more people are wearing masks,” Johnson said. “I think sometimes people need a rule.”
President Donald Trump discusses changes to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) during a trip to Atlanta on July 15, 2020. (White House video)
President Donald Trump traveled to Atlanta Wednesday to unveil changes to longstanding environmental rules that industries hail as a boon for infrastructure and critics condemn as toxic.
Trump’s visit Wednesday was his second trip to Atlanta so far this year. He previously traveled to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in early March at the onset of the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
The appearance came as the president faces an increasingly tough fight in Georgia to win the state’s 16 electoral votes against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the upcoming Nov. 3 general election.
The president’s 45-minute visit Wednesday focused on an overhaul of key regulatory rules in the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a Nixon-era law signed in 1970 that requires construction projects like pipelines, roads and power plants to undergo certain environmental reviews.
Environmental advocates view the NEPA rules as critical to preventing damaging wildlife and human-health impacts from large projects. Industry groups frame the rules as overly cumbersome in a way that hamstrings economy-driving infrastructure.
Under the changes, federal agencies will have to complete environmental reviews for projects within two years, hastening a process that frequently takes far longer. Limits would also be set on how agencies may factor a project’s impacts on climate change into its review.
“Today’s action is part of my administration’s fierce commitment to slashing the web of needless bureaucracy that’s holding back our citizens,” Trump said. “It’s one of the biggest things we can be doing for our country.”
Specifically, Trump highlighted an expansion project for Interstate 75 south of Atlanta that has languished in the review phase for years.
The president said the revised NEPA rules would help jump-start that project, which would add truck-only lanes along I-75 from Macon to McDonough to reduce traveling times for Atlanta-area drivers.
Trump also teased he is working with Gov. Brian Kemp on unspecified infrastructure projects in Georgia but did not go into specifics.
“We have some things planned in Georgia that will be really incredible and everyone’s going to want it,” Trump said.
Backers from trade and industry groups say the NEPA changes the president announced Wednesday would help relieve burdensome environmental reviews and spur needed infrastructure projects.
The American Petroleum Institute praised the move by Trump as a show of support for job-creating industries and a tool to help jump-start the economy amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Today’s action is essential to U.S. energy leadership and environmental progress, providing more certainty to jump-start not only the modernized pipeline infrastructure we need to deliver cleaner fuels but highways, bridges and renewable energy,” said Mike Sommers, the institute’s president and CEO.
But critics have panned the review rollback, casting it as an attempt to gut key environmental safeguards that have been in place for decades.
They view the relaxed NEPA requirements as a potential means for high-polluting industries to face less scrutiny at the expense of environmental protection and initiatives aimed at curbing climate change.
“This unprecedented move silences the public – especially front-line communities who are impacted first and worst by climate Change, COVID-19 and industrial pollution,” said the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council. “We will not let this stand.”
Georgia Democratic lawmakers and leaders also slammed the regulatory changes, arguing looser environmental rules could hurt minority communities the most.
“Georgia has a very poor track record when it comes to protecting communities of color, particularly when it comes to environmental justice issues,” said Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who now heads a voting rights group.
Further, local Democratic officials cast Trump’s visit to Atlanta as largely an attempt to boost support in the state ahead of the Nov. 3 general election, amid a wave of campaign advertisement buys and recent polls showing a tight race with Biden.
State Sen. Nikema Williams, who chairs the Democratic Party of Georgia, dismissed Trump’s visit as a political maneuver that avoids addressing the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Georgia and across the U.S.
“Donald Trump needs to address the needs of everyday Georgians if he’s going to continue to make pit stops here in our state,” said Williams, D-Atlanta.
State Republican Party leaders have downplayed chances for Biden to win Georgia or for Democratic candidates to flip the two Republican-held U.S. Senate seats up for grabs or the state House of Representatives’ Republican majority.
“It is imperative that Georgians re-elect the president this November,” said Stewart Bragg, executive director of the Georgia Republican Party. “America needs a second term of the administration that never stops fighting for economic growth.”
Coronavirus has sickened tens of thousands and killed thousands more in Georgia. (Image: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Gov. Brian Kemp is facing a Wednesday deadline to decide whether to extend social-distancing restrictions for businesses and other requirements put in place in Georgia amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The governor could extend all of the current business and gathering restrictions currently in effect or continue a trend in recent months of gradually relaxing them. He has executive authority to issue emergency orders through at least Aug. 11.
Kemp’s office said he plans to update the COVID-19 restrictions sometime Wednesday before they are due to expire at 11:59 p.m.
While a host of Georgia businesses have been allowed to reopen since May, they are still required by the governor’s orders to abide by several measures to keep people separated from each other, maintain clean surfaces and send workers home if they show symptoms of coronavirus.
A shelter-in-place order has been under effect since late March for Georgians in long-term care facilities and those with chronic medical conditions including lung disease, moderate to severe asthma, severe heart disease, compromised immune systems, severe obesity and diabetes.
In particular, large gatherings in Georgia have been limited to no more than 50 people if they cannot keep at least six feet apart. That applies to restaurants, bars and other popular gathering spots.
Conventions, sports stadiums and performance venues were allowed to reopen July 1 under distancing, sanitizing and signage rules. But Kemp has suggested he could pull the plug on fall sports like football if people disregard wearing masks.
Mask-wearing in Georgia has been a testy subject in recent weeks. Kemp remains under pressure to impose mandatory masking requirements as positive COVID-19 cases continue rising in the state, and several cities have ordered residents to wear facial coverings in public.
The governor’s statewide rules so far have “strongly encouraged” voluntary mask-wearing even as many health experts and local elected officials have urged Kemp to take a mandatory approach or at least let counties and cities set their own masking rules.
To date, Kemp’s orders on COVID-19 have required city and county governments to adopt the state’s rules rather than impose their own. That scenario has caused tension in cities like Atlanta and Savannah, where local officials recently required residents to wear masks.
Last week, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued a citywide masking requirement that argued the governor’s statewide orders do not explicitly address mask mandates, posing a legal loophole for local governments to adopt their own measures.
Kemp’s office has dismissed the Atlanta mask mandate as unenforceable.
