Governor Brian Kemp held a news conference Thursday afternoon. He was joined by Lt. Gov. Jeff Duncan, Speaker David Ralston, Dr. Kathleen Toomey with the Department of Public Health and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, among others.
In the wake of the state’s first coronavirus death, Kemp urged residents to take care of their elderly relatives.
“Starting as soon as possible I'm calling on all families across Georgia to get together and talk about how they're going to protect their grandparents, how they're going to protect their loved ones with health conditions, and how they'll come up with a game plan for getting them what they need, groceries prescriptions and other necessary supplies,” Kemp said.
Kemp also urged elderly resident to avoid large gatherings.
“We need to help them dramatically limit their exposure to the public for the foreseeable future. Health officials are not now telling us that these vulnerable populations need to avoid mass gatherings and locations with high traffic counts of people, even faith based services or events.”
While authorities have identified how many patients have contracted the virus, but in some cases of the disease, the cause of the infection remains unknown. The governor encouraged local governments, educators and others to consider closing temporarily.
Kemp has requested and received $100 million in emergency funding to battle coronavirus.
