Gov. Kemp: School districts should consider closing for two weeks
Published 5:18 pm Thursday, March 12, 2020
ATLANTA — School districts and day care centers should consider closing for two weeks starting tomorrow, Governor Brian Kemp said at a news conference Thursday, though he stressed he was not ordering them to do so.
Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Meria Carstarphen said in a tweet the district would close for up to two weeks, though students and teachers should report to schools on Friday.
A 67-year-old man who was hospitalized is Georgia’s first death from coronavirus, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday.
The man tested positive for the virus March 7 and was hospitalized at WellStar Kennestone, according to the governor.
Kemp said the man had “underlying medical conditions,” but he did not say what they were or how the man may have contracted the illness.
“I know the medical professionals on site did everything that they could, and I greatly appreciate their efforts,” Kemp said in a statement.
A string of large events were canceled this week. Among them: Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, called off for the first time in nearly a century.
Georgia has an initial solution for people who test positive for the novel coronavirus but can’t stay at home and don’t require hospitalization: An isolated corner of a state park, where mobile housing units have been set up.
So far, the lone resident of the quarantine at Hard Labor Creek State Park is a military veteran who cooked at a Waffle House northwest of Atlanta and doesn’t know how he contracted the illness.
“Every joint in my body hurt,” Joey Camp, 30, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I could not move a joint in my body from my ankles, up my back, arms — could not without sharp pain.”
Camp, who served in Afghanistan and is from Cartersville, was staying with a friend who has an infant son, so he volunteered to be isolated away from home.
He said he’s been spending his time at the park taking antibiotics, watching Star Wars films on his cellphone and eating chili dogs and other take-out meals left for him by state health officials.
Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan announced Thursday that Georgia’s legislative session would be suspended after Friday and until further notice. Duncan said the decision was made out of an abundance of caution and in coordination with Kemp and House Speaker David Ralston.
Georgia has been tracing contacts for 31 people who have tested positive for COVID-19 across about a dozen counties. Several members of a church in Bartow County are infected, according to Kemp.
Separately, 124 passengers flown in from the Grand Princess in California are in a two-week quarantine at Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta, CDC spokesman Bert Kelly said.
For most people, this coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, but for a few, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illnesses, including pneumonia.
Georgia’s cases are spread across the state, from Floyd County in northwest Georgia to Lowndes and Charlton counties near the Florida line, according to an update late Wednesday from Kemp’s office. Other cases are from Cherokee, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Fayette, Fulton, Lee and Polk counties.
Some of the tests still await confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Georgia Department of Public Health Commissioner Kathleen Toomey was pressed at a news conference Thursday about whether Georgia had adequate testing capability for the virus.
The state will expand its capacity to 100 tests a day by the end of next week and officials think more commercial labs will offer the test as well, she said. The goal is to have a network of testing sites around the state that are not affiliated with hospitals or health departments, she said.
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