Transcripts For CSPAN Georgia Gov. Kemp Holds Coronavirus Briefing 20240713

Younger people, it is a huge issue. Announcer share your experiences dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and ask. Xperts your questions join our live conversation every morning on washington journal which starts at 7 00 and week nights at 8 00 p. M. Eastern for washington journal primetime. Georgia Governor Brian Kemp held a briefing yesterday in update on give an the states efforts to handle the coronavirus pandemic. He took questions on the states hospital Equipment Shortage and enforcement of the stay at home order. Good afternoon, everyone. I apologize were running a few minutes late. Being you so much for with us today. As usual, i have the Public Health commissioner, dr. Kathleen toomey, adjunct georgia tom carden, Emergency Management and Homeland Security director homer brison, all the people operating under the direction standing leaders behind me are truly remarkable. Including them. Theyve been working, as you imagine, long hours, with very little sleep. All those t to thank hardworking georgians, under their direction, that are commited to the health and citizens and our thank them for how hard theyre working as well. The best essed to have and brightest on the frontlines of this fight. Have noon today, we now 4638 cases in georgia, spanning 139 counties with 139 deaths due to the covid19. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the families, loved ones and we have lost hat to this terrible virus. Lab has he state processed 2100 tests and commercial vendors have now process add little over 18,000. As many of you know, testing in georgia has increased rapidly er the last couple of weeks. But our capacity has been number of e to the reliable and available tests. Many of you here have reported, competition amongst states for access to commercial obviously at an alltime high. Important tool for identifying cases earlier, state ing hotspots in our with more resources, developing models and providing timely information to the public. These tests are vital to our frontline workers. Georgias doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists. Responders and Law Enforcement, as well as the medically fragile populations, including those living in longterm care facilities and the elderly. In short, tests define the battlefield. And help us develop a strategy to win this war. Was proud to announce plans to quickly and dramatically increase availability of testing for covid19 in our state. Proactive and timely initiative is leveraging Laboratory Resources under the University System of georgia, Public Health laboratory and Emery University to rapidly enhance surge a unique ul this is Publicprivate Partnership which was announced and set into motion yesterday. For us to start processing over 3,000 samples a day. As you know from the beginning, we have used data, science and of Health Care Professionals to determine our preparedness and relief efforts. These new testing numbers will better picture of covid19s impact on our state and continue to inform our rd. Isions as we move forwa i want to pause a moment and ty system of versi georgia, chancellor steve wrigley, dr. Toomey and their spective staff for their hard work on this important partnership. In ant to assure georgians every part of our state that expanding testing remains a top as well as r me those that are standing behind me today. Status quo that the is unacceptable and i certainly appreciate their innovation. We will continue to innovate and push so all georgians who for covid19 can do so in a safe and convenient way. Since forming the Coronavirus Task force in february, we have orders to several keep our families as well as our communities safe. In this fight together and i want to share once again flatten the infection curve in georgia. Must op the spread, we practice social distancing. To mitigate the risks, it is best that you stay home. For the most part, georgians are heeding this advice and i couldnt be more grateful for that. Especially in the metro area. As you can see, traffic has lessened dramatically. Have folks teleworking, attending church online, for ing takeout or delivery meals and postponing social events for the greater good. These are personal choices and they are not easy. Listen to eorgians the guidance provided and they w the orders issued, are actively joining the fight against this deadly disease. Hard work and georgians limit their travel, limit their and raction with others limit their activities, they are buying us more time to get additional hospital beds ready. Order supplies and continue to positive cases. All of us know that this fight is one at the Community Lab level, not at the State Capitol behind us. To win this war, we have to hunker down and continue to chop a lot of wood. I was really taken by the rus press s coronavi briefing yesterday and what dr. Say and she echoed these truths it will be the hard work of people in cities, towns and communities across our nation, following the advice of Health Care Experts and making change to their to fulfill a higher calling. And that is what were seeing in georgia. You know, our people are determined and they are resilient. Short of ccept nothing a victory over this virus. Know full well we have many challenges ahead of us but we have plenty of opportunities as well. I want to encourage my fellow georgians to hang in there. I know that youre tired of this. I know you want to return to business as usual. But we must first overcome the staob kls that we have in our h. T by doing this, we will get through this together. There is no question that these are unprecedented times and state officials are taking historic measures to meet the needs of the Health Care Providers, hospitals, patients and communities across our state. Teams at the National Operation center and stockpile warehouse the clock to round identify needs and strengthen the supply chain and ensure that we have a plan for any scenario. Morning, we have beds, 450 al surgical beds and 1006 ventilators available in our hospitals across the state. The taout for Health Metrics and evaluation of the university washington, georgia will reach peak Hospital Capacity on april 23rd. That is nearly three weeks from today. This model assumes that abide by continue to the states orders and use social distancing methods through the end of may. These numbers, as you know, are updated on a daily basis and we are continuing to monitor capacity. State officials, i can assure are working closely with georgia hospital associations, e ambulatory Surgery Centers to take a full inventory of beds and ventilators. We also are spotting trends to prepare for the days and weeks ahead. Far we have purchased four medical pods which are still shipping containers that have been converted to mobile units with beds as well as equipment. Each unit offers 20 to 24 beds a nursing station to treat patients as they arrive. Will be a be these stateowned asset that will be able to quickly to deploy to hardhit areas. We have submitted a request to these pods using military medical providers. To expand current bed capacity, have temporarily suspended certificate of need laws. Administrators are reconfiguring existing hospital wings orem barking on new construction to address the looming concern. Commissioner frank berry with the Georgia Department of Community Health is working with multiple Hospital Systems to reopen closed facilities for use. Want to take this opportunity shoutout for Phoebe Putney and Piedmont Health care for going above and beyond the call of duty. These stms have engaged the several reopen facilities and bring hospital prepare for as we the potential patient surge. Of you know, this is one of the hardest hit areas in our state. Date, we have shipped necessary supplies and planned the shipments based on needs of Phoebe Putneys system in the future. Public health of has deployed an Epidemiology Team in coordination with the Disease Control and prevention. We have also deployed two National Guard medic teams to this county. The twoguard units are assisting existing staff at phoebe and a nearby nursing home facility on everything administrative needs to medical treatment. As general carden will explain, these units are brandnew. They were created specifically for this purpose. That is an incredible testament carden and his team that they were able to identify, mobilize and successfully deploy these soldiers in such a short period of time. As reported, the state has worked closely with local Health Officials to establish phoebe d capacity at north and provide staffing and relieve t north to Phoebe Putney memorial hospital. We expect phoebe north to be as dy and treat patients early as next week, the first part of next week. Conversations al with scott steiner, the c. E. O. Phoebe putney multiple times over the last week as well and darden county commission chair, Lee County Commission chair, the mayor and many other local leaders. Continue to all do everything in our power to doherty county and surrounding communities have the resource and support that they desperately need in this crisis. As i mentioned a moment ago t georgia National Guard has identified new teams to replicate the units albany and doherty county in similar hotspots around our state. The georgia terday, guard announced another innovative way to stop the spread of coronavirus across our state. This virus is deadly, as you ow, but it is more dangerous a en left unchecked in longterm care facility. To assist the managers of these their ties to keep patients and residents safe, well activate over 100 deploy to any longterm care facility, assisted living facility or nursing home that has covid19 patients. Implement ps will infection protocols to dramatically reduce covid19 exposure amongst vulnerable residents. Going forward, i cannot of rstate the importance nursing home facilities and longterm care homes following e Public Health guidelines. Our task force is in regular communication with the Georgia Health Care Association to make sure these facilities are receiving accurate, uptodate information from the department of Public Health and from the Disease Control and prevention. In the weeks to come t georgia National Guard units will have boots on the ground to assist and continue ons to ensure were protecting our most vulnerable citizens. As i previously mentioned on march 23rd, i issued an executive order banning more than 10 people unless they are at least each persons een at all times. And requiring medically fragile georgians to shelter in place through april 6, 2020. Ive signed several executive orders lifting restrictions on more doctors, nurses, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to work. Closing k12 schools through april 24th. Amount of g the Unemployment Benefits available to georgians facing financial hardship. Ive also authorized the state board of education to waive rules, regulations, policies, procedures and provisions to assist in the states response to covid19. The e also allowing realtime use or the use of realtime audiovisual chnology to assist in notarizing real estate documents. Actions related to future revenue, ive directed the commissioner of to implement waivers for conservation use, value land sment and Forest Protection act applications. Ive transferred additional pay for more ds to supplies and equipment and i continue to appreciate the of the General Assembly and speaker of the lieutenant for their support in emergency funding in the amended budget. All of those measures have for the weeks are ahead as we fight this pandemic facing our entire country. We are constantly reviewing the data, the modeling and the signs. Science. Director to thank brison for completing the isolation side of the Georgia Public Safety Training Center a very short period of time. We currently have five patients have a facility which Maximum Capacity of 40 individuals. Site of Hard Labor Creek state park, this facility are not atients that able to isolate themselves and have this inue to resource available for individuals that need it. Continue to fight this virus, our office is receiving and rts that are concerning deserve the publics immediate attention. By one area told atlanta hospital that they are in ing a 15 increase Domestic Violence cases at their facilities. This is disturbing and alarming and it cannot be tolerated. If you or someone you know needs help, i would ask you to call the georgia Domestic Violence hotline. Number is 18003342836. Georgia Domestic Violence hotline. We are also seeing a reduction of child abuse. Likely a consequence of our having as much facetime with georgia students. Teachers and administrators are to see the first ones the signs of abuse and now with we must remain vigilant about this problem and continue to work to remedy it. You are a child in crisis, needs w of someone who help, i would urge you to reach out to the Georgia Department and Children Services at 855gachild. Thats 8554224453. And finally, my office has and ived dozens of calls emails from many hardworking georgians out of work. Have had their hours cut back or Business Owners that, unfortunately, have had to close. And as someone that has spent my entire career in the private sector, i know the Economic Impact of this global pandemic. Georgians have to feed and clothe their families. Pay rent, to utilities and buy gas for their vehicles. Is that a y government check will only pay for so much and go so far. Hundreds of thousands of georgians are facing financial ruin because of this virus. As many of you know, i was a developer during great recession. Literally in those days we hour to hour, daytoday and week to week. I have will be there before, trying to support my family. It is a frightening thing, to say the least. So, for those waitresses who job, theyre a Small Business owner who doesnt know if theyll make the hourly s week or worker who barely made rent today, i hear you. I will aying for you and promise you we dont work hard every day for you. Want to thank commissioner mark butler. He has done a great job streamlining the unemployment benefit process and we are states ne of the first in the southeast to be approved expanded Small Business administration loans. We have also extended the state deadline to match the federal deadline and issue looking for workers hourly jobs to get through the next few weeks. We will continue to do whatever takes to help keep our a milies safe and ensure strong and prosperous future. These are difficult moments as and as a state. But these times, as you have the best in us. They remind us of the good that this great s in state and world which we live in. The many, many people in our Business Community who have stepped up their part to fight covid19. Georgias own home depot is millions of dollars in p. P. E. And other products. Prioritizing full philip orders to hospitals, Health Care Providers and first responders. Honeywell has a hub here in ramping up production of n95 masks from a new facility in rhode island and another one in arizona that will come online in may. Their e already doubled production of n95 masks and next 90 days theyll have five times the capacity to Critical Health care supplies. In local communities across the state, weve seen small Business Owners completely and rpose their staff production lines to make other materials that are in short supply. One is not far from here. In t. S. G. , resolute and americas georgia has partnered between partnership cocacola and georgia tech here in atlanta. Finding ways to masks e, to manufacture and shields for workers on the frontlines every day. Issued new ouse as federal guidelines and timeline for mitigating the spread of coronavirus. Public Health Officials are discouraging large gatherings, elderly and anyone with Underlying Health problems to stay at home, encouraging telework and keeping kids from school. Until april 31st. Georgias order reflected the guidance and direction for President Trump and his Coronavirus Task force. I have empowered numerous agencies and officials to enforce them. Natural gia domestic of resources will limit gatherings with officials patrolling excuse me, bodies of water as well as campgrounds. Are monitoring coves where people tend to congregate and, necessary, theyre using bull horns and other methods to get people to disband. Officials will approach people and demand compliance with our orders for the wellbeing of all of our citizens in our state. Local officials are working hard to ensure compliance with vary by rectives which city and county across our state. The Georgia State patrol is take action to accept full compliance, no exceptions. The reality is if you do not are violating the law and you will be facing stiff penalties. Even worse, even worse, youre endangering the lives of those around you, your loved ones and all fellow georgians. In georgia, the safety and wellbeing of each citizen comes first. We will do what is necessary if people fail to comply. Thousands of georgians have used the power of social media to tell people about these orders as well as to hold ople accountable. I would like everyone to keep doing that, folks. It has been a huge help to us. To all of those people who have reported noncompliant and organizations to the covid19 hotline, thank you. Following up on these complaints and have had a great reaction from companies to do right for their employees and the people they are serving. Many of our states most beloved brands out there are setting an example for others. Like home depot, chickfila and many others. We appreciate their leadership during these very difficult moments. I would encourage everyone to continue to stay safe. Enjoy your time with your family. And dont follow the directives to mitigate the spread of this us. Do your part to urge your friends, neighbors and coworkers to do the same. Promise to with our let data and experts guide our ng isionmaking, im announci another measured, strategic step forward. As you know over the past 48 hours, the modeling and data has dramatically changed for other states any around the country. The c. D. C. Has announced that infected and an be spread coronavirus earlier than previously thought, even if they have no symptoms from. A Public Health standpoint, this is a revelation and a gamechanger. In addition, new models show that georgia will need more for hospital re Surge Capacity and while we are progress with nt our team, we have got to be more aggressive. And in se reasons accordance with dr. Toomeys recommendation, i will sign an executive order today closing k12 Public Schools for the rest of the school year. I want to stress that Online Learning will continue. I want to thank al of the edge toer anze s is educators and superintendent who are worked with us on this and well continue to work with them on the path forward. Tomorrow, i will sign a statewide shelter in place will go into effect on friday and run through april 13, 2020. Is in line with our Public Health emergency order. Dr. Toomey and i will continue to work day and night to finalize the order to make sure our citizens healthy and protected in every zip code across our state. We are taking action to protect to help our s, medical providers and prepare for the patient surge that we know is coming. Action will ensure uniformity across jurisdictions for georgians sheltering in place and help families and be able to comply with its provisions. We will publish the order tomorrow and issue detailed s can get o georgian prepared. We will continue, as i said, to monitor the data and make sure that we make adjustments as needed. The public bers of informed every step of the way. When i announce my campaign for three years ago today, i told a crowded room of supporters in cobb county that there would be difficult days ahead for us. Would remember joshua 1 9. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. The lord your god will be with you wherever you may go. Years later, know that i still believe that with my entire heart. Doctors, nurses, medical staff, be strong and courageous as you have been. To our first responders, eryone else on the ground from a g this fight medical perspective, truck drivers, Grocery Store workers, be d delivery workers, strong and courageous. Mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers, be strong and cainl you. Courageous. Hardworking georgians from every corner of our state, now is the time to fight and continue to be strong and courageous. We are in this together. We are going to win this together. And were not going to leave anyone alone. Be strong and courageous. Thank you all and god bless you and im now going to ask dr. Come up and give you an update from her end. Thank you. Dr. Toomey . Thank you very much. Its hard to believe that it a month ago we first met to announce the first two cases. Cases were e, those due to travel and we recognize to address the situation. Since those first two cases we have seen a , change in the pattern of transmission in our state. From what was related to travel of now become n many parts our state, Widespread Community transmission. And recognizing that we feel that the time is appropriate to aggressive Community Mitigation measures to address spread. Even in those areas with relatively few cases, theres sion and erate transmis we cant let the fact that relatively few cases are in an area. We have not been testing everybody. We have been testing only those who have symptoms and those are the most ill. What ow we recognize what was, as the governor pointed out, for us a gamechanger in how our strategy to fight covid has unfolded. Realize now that individuals may be spreading the virus not even realising they have infection. As many as one in four people coronavirus dont realize they have infection because they have no symptoms whatsoever. D even if symptoms begin, you can transmit it earlier than expected. And so we felt that the time was now to take some more aggressive measures. Now ou have heard, we have in the thousands of cases. Care ve 47 longterm facilities with outbreaks that were investigating. Outbreaks related to prisons and jails. We have had at least five of breaks that we know related to Church Gatherings and more related to funerals. And so every possible situation in a people are can be a e setting potential site for transmission. So, we ask everyone to think about how we can Work Together with you and your community. So many times before, not only protect your family, but please take responsibility for your community as well. It willable your actions that protect the community as a whole. We said dont go out if you are ill. Now with ear saying please, dont go into settings where you can expose a chance til we have to stop this ongoing transmission in our communities. Our goal that you have heard from the governor and from stop s is to try to transmission so that we dont overwhelm our hospitals. To ensure that other cities in georgia, like thousands, like savannah do not which is ke albany, now fighting the worst fight of any place in georgia and has anoning highest rates of covid19 in the country and in the world. Just want to thank everybody their ance for cooperation, for their respect families other and the and the communities. And most of all i want to thank from the bottom of my heart, all the medical person in the hospitals and in the care nities, Health Workers and my own Public Health staff who have been to king night and day to try fight this virus. And together we will win. And thank you very much. All right. Thank you, dr. Toomey. Ill let general carden give you an update on the many tivities of the georgia National Guard. General . Thank you, governor. All a brief you update about the georgia National Guard and what were the covid19 response, weve developed and deployed 13 medical support teams to the regional coordinating hospitals across the state of georgia as the governor mentioned earlier. Process now of building and deploying Infection Control teams to assist in longterm facilities, assisted living and Nursing Homes. Were manning seven food banks make sure that georgi after thit against this invisible enemy and i agree with the governor and dr. Toomey, there is no doubt in my mind that we will prevail. Thank you very much. Governor comes governor, theres been a lot of officials who have been asking for a long , about why you took this long. And secondly, will you also be calling for a delay in the may 19 primary . On themp first of all, election, the attorneys that i have talked to, i dont have the authority under this order to delay an election. Beenusly i know there has a lot of talk about that. As you can imagine, i have been focused on that myself. Weve got our hands full with the covid19 fight. I think the reason im taking this action, like i continued to tell people, im following the data, im following the advice of dr. Toomey. She and i both mentioned in our remarks, finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs, what we have been telling people from directives from the cdc for weeks now that if you start feeling bad, stay home. Those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad. Didnt know that until the last 24 hours, and as dr. Toomey told me, this is a game changer for us. I had been listening to her advice, the other measures weve been taking previously, if you look at our order and the things that we did, ordering every business to adhere to strict social distancing guidelines, shelterinplace for the elderly or the medically fragile, and putting the ban on large gatherings, if you compare that to other states that had shelterinplace but had all kind of exemptions and exceptions and essential businesses, we had a strong and order as anybody in the country. I think the issue is we still continue to have people that are not taking this seriously. Im very thankful to those georgians that we have who have literally been staying home with their families unless they were going to their place of employment. All overple texting me the weekend that are in the construction industry, saying we we haveended implemented social distancing on our job sites. I know there are many people who have done that. Grueling decisions by small Business Owners that ive read about that had to close a pizza restaurant because their customers would not comply with what they were trying to do. So for the good of the public, they had to shut it down. That had to be a grueling decision for those people. Im thankful for the federal support weve gotten from the president , the Vice President , our congressional delegate delegation, with the support of the stimulus bill, i know that money will begin flowing quickly and that will be very helpful for people who have lost their jobs and have limited hours. The sba loan process, over local banks and many other people including our team are working very hard to put that information together to get that in the works very quickly. I think all those things are going to happen going to help. Ive been following the advice of the task force and the Health Officials. There have been all kinds of models and Different Things we are looking at, but this new model, based on guidance of what the president , dr. Birx, and dr. Fauci said last night, is going to be very helpful for the state as we move forward. Again, what once are the dates of the order, and what will be different under this order compared with what we are already under, and how are you going to enforce it using the state control and other Law Enforcement state patrol and other Law Enforcement . Gov. Kemp i have the ability to deputize under the power of the Public Health emergency order. Exactly what that looks like, we will have a lot of information in this order. Thats one of the things i think is really hard about a shelterinplace, its going to take a lot more detail in the order than what we had before. Ive had concerns about that confusing the public, but at this point, i think it is the right thing to do in i will rely on dr. Toomey to help me write that the rest of the night and in the morning and we will have the details in the order. It will go through our Public Health emergency order of april 13. So you anticipate there will be in this detailed order there will be some exceptions for Grocery Stores and pharmacies and things like that . Gov. Kemp people have to eat. We have to continue to process our wood supply. We have to have pharmacies open. We have to have georgiabased companies that are making ppe, medical supplies, and i have heard from a lot of these people. These are hard things to figure out, just like the packaging companies. If you make the medical supplies, someone has to make the packaging that it goes into keep it sanitized on the way to the health care facilities. So we are working through all of that and we will have that ready to go tomorrow with guidance. Governor, did i understand you just the Tipping Point was a shelterinplace order is that you learned in the last 24 hours that people can be a symptomatic throughout the disease and still spread . It seems like that has been clear for a while. Gov. Kemp i will let dr. Toomey speak to that, but weve been doing two calls a day, every day, for well over a month, and last night dr. Toomey said on that call, and we talked about it again today, that this new information that came from cdc was a game changer. So i will let her speak to that. You could tell from the pattern of spread and we knew from the cruise ships that there is likely a symptomatic transmission. Cdc guidance and our own testing patterns were to test those with symptoms. So all of our epidemiologic models were based on people with symptoms. And i think it is the combination, not only of recognizing that theres probably a large number of people out there who are infected who are asymptomatic who never would have been recognized under our old models, but also seeing the Community Transmission that we are seeing and recognizing now is the time to stop that transmission before the hospitals get overrun. Its something the governor and i and the task force talked about at some length, and i thek the important thing is action is being taken and we really need the publics thisration to ensure that is valued and also respected. I can tell you that even in my own community, i still have people say to me, i dont understand why you are so upset about this, this is just like the flu. This is absolutely not just like the flu. Its many times more transmissible. And it is also much more deadly. And we have absolutely no immunity to this. We dont have a vaccine. Our bodies were not exposed to this before, so we cant fight this off. So we see as the pattern of deaths have occurred, those particular elderly and those with Chronic Health conditions are most at risk, but everybody is at risk for infection, and i think the time is now to try to stop the Community Transmission. A question about the longterm care facilities. It seems like an awfully large number of facilities have been infected. Have you looked at the causes of these outbreaks . Is this a number that continues to increase in terms of facilities . And what are other states seeing . Gov. Kemp i will let dr. Toomey speak to what the teams are seeing on the grounds with it. I think the albany situation, and she can confirm this, but i believe there was a Funeral Service weeks ago where an infected person with and it created this whole epicenter that just exploded down there i imagine that somebody that was at that funeral works in these facilities and got in there and brought the virus inside. Thats one reason we have been begging people, and i know its a hard thing, religious services, trying to do them online, try to do them drive in, people staying in their car, spreading people out. Unfortunately not only in georgia but across the country weve seen individuals and services that are not abiding by that. For theirtough congregations and those faith leaders because it is tough on me, but weve had other states were people literally had choir practice that practiced social distancing and did everything that were supposed to do, and you still had the whole choir get infected. One of the states on the west coast and to those individuals passed away. That is what were dealing with, and when you look at what we had in place before, the measures that we had our what the president and dr. Birx and dr. Dr. Fauci and dr. Toomey have said we have to continue to do. Dont go out unless you need to. When you go out, practice your social distancing. Use good sanitation measures on your hands and dont touch her face, dont do handshakes, dont congregate with people. There may be new guidance that we will need to look at with the situation we are dealing with. Dr. Toomey and i have spoken to that and i will let her address anything she wants on the Nursing Homes. Dr. Toomey i think we are learning more every day about this virus and how it acts. We talked about its a novel virus, it is new, so we are still learning a lot about how it spreads and what we need to do to protect the community. Nursing homes are probably the highest risk situation we have, short of cruise ships, because you have individuals that highest risk in a congregant setting and if people come in and out, whether its visitors or health care workers, they can bring infection with them. But we have seen is that there wasnt is not just in georgia , its all of the country, the full appreciation for how volatile the situations were in congregant settings like longterm care settings and Senior Centers and other places. We have an epi Team Dedicated fully to going into longterm care facilities and helping with Infection Control and ensuring that guidance is being followed. Even as im saying this now, cdc is updating their guidance daily. As we learn, we begin to look and begin to do outreach and begin to follow the patterns, and we will find more. Of 300, i 47 out suspect we will find more additional as we become more conscious of spread in the community. Referring to that model you cited that will reach our peak in three weeks, thats only in reference to the first wave of the epidemic, right . According to that model, most of the population will still be susceptible after that first wave. What are you thinking in terms of our longterm plans to help georgia whether this . Gov. Kemp the whole team is working on longterm plans and where we go from here. Thisy to simplify, which is a very complex deal that we are dealing with, seeing that it is a new virus, but one of the things that made me really understand what we are facing that was pretty simple, i heard a guy talking about, imagine an archery target. You have some big populations. We know, looking from other countries and what is happening in other states, we are going to have a lot of people that potentially get virus. What we are trying to do is make sure people that get that virus is a very small bullseye down here who have to enter the hospital system. If we can keep the elderly population, the medically fragile, if we can keep them from getting this, they are the ones that are going to be more susceptible to needing a hospital bed, to needing an icu bed, a ventilator, and that Critical Care for days and days potentially for many of those individuals. So we are trying to make sure we get that big target funneled down to an amount of people that we can handle with our existing hospital bed space, but also ramp up for the surge that is coming with extra beds, reopening these old facilities, ordering the pods we are talking about. Homer is here and he can answer any questions on equivalent supplies of facilities. We have turned over every rock and we continue to do that on shuttered facilities, looking at Convention Center sites for mobile hospitals and other things. It also looking at staffing. A hospital bed doesnt do you any good if you dont have a ventilator or have somebody to take care of the patient. Those are things we are working on. If we can flatten the curve now, we make that bullseye smaller, which is less people that we have to run through the hospital system. Thats why we need everybodys help. Like dr. Birx said, like i said, and like i said, unlike dr. Toomey said, it is not the government thats going to solve that problem. It is the community at large. By adhering to social distancing, keeping your hands sanitized him a dont go to these large events. Do takeout orders. Just stay at home with your family when you can. If you are getting out to do things that are essential, just be doing it in a smart way, and its awkward avoiding people now, but thats what everybody is doing. You walk by somebody on the sidewalk, you are moving to the other side. Thats what we need them to do. And we just need to do this for a few more weeks, regardless of how long this goes on, now is the crunch time for us to lessen the peak. Weve got to lessen the peak, to make the bullseye smaller so we dont over run our Health Care Network and all those people who are literally grinding away 24 7. We literally have people that are not going home now because they dont want to infect their families. So they are risking everything to be on the front lines in this fight and they are not even getting to see their family at night because they dont want to infect them. Georgia and american heroes out there working right now. These people, all of us can help them by flattening this curve. Toyou are saying basically keep the bullseye small right now with these restrictions, the idea is to allow our Health Care System to ramp up to capacity that could handle a second wave . Is that what im understanding . Gov. Kemp you are talking about a wave after the peak on april 23 . I know we are looking at longterm things as well, but right now we are looking at that three week window. That is our immediate needs. Ppe, ventilators, we are working on that stuff every single day. But i know we have a team that is thinking about the long term as well. I think weve been here from the beginning when all this broke down. What do you want to tell the families of those who did lose loved ones, more than 130 people in georgia have now died. Using the sheltered home is a welcome relief, but what about the families who have lost loved ones . Shouldnt this have been put in place earlier . Gov. Kemp what we had in place earlier is exactly what the Health Officials were telling us to do. The same thing the president talked about and dr. Birx talked about yesterday, when you look at the orders i put in place versus what other states did, call it whatever you want, but if the press would really dig in and compare come they would see that what georgia has in place is very strict compared to other states around the country. Is their likelihood of this being extended . April 13 is about 10 days. We definitely have that on our radar. I dont want to make a determination on that. Im very appreciative of the unprecedented actions that the General Assembly took to give me these emergency powers. That goes through april 13. Now that ive made this decision, once we get the order in place, well be talking to the leadership and members of the general simile about where we go next. Before i comment on that, i would like to include them in that decisionmaking process because they are a big part of that, and im very grateful for them. Gov. Kemp our goal is to continue to do more than we are today on testing. Weve been working on that ever since we started with this. We are seeing driveby testing now. Thetoomeys direction and cdc has been for their front line workers and the medically fragile to have the first dibs on the tests, if you will. I think that is an appropriate thing because we are trying to protect the Frontline Health care workers. We dont want them working in the hospital if they have tested positive. I may let dr. Toomey speak to it, and i think homer and others have been working on testing as well. I hate to say too much that im not supposed to say right now, but i know we have a lot that we are rolling out and certainly the University Partnership was a big one. I think that was yesterday. Dr. Toomey i think all of us recognize the more we test, the more we will see the spread of covert infections. Covidularly as we of infections. Particular yes we spread to less symptomatic people. It has been restricted to the sickest people and also those in the hospitals. Testing, moreand broadly as more testing becomes available, we cannot test our way out of this crisis. We have to take the Community Mitigation measures that have been proposed now. I cant emphasize enough that it is so important for the public to understand that this cannot be done by us testing, this cant be done by the medical community providing care. This has got to be done by all of us working together and everybody respecting the social distancing and the request to for thisof the Public Limited time that will pay dividends, we hope, long term in helping to eliminate this virus. My question is about the shelterinplace. Obviously this is new for everybody in the state of georgia and for georges besides besides the obvious for what you can and cannot do, talk about what cam lease can and cannot do. For example, in my situation, i kids grandparents would love to come from north georgia down to atlanta to visit their grandkids. Is that acceptable . What about family members seeing other family members, as long as they are keeping distance . Let dr. Toomeyll speak to the individual scenarios because they are the ones that are giving me the advice on this. But families need to do exactly what we have been telling them for weeks. We will have more directions tomorrow when we put the order out, but they need to social distance, they need to stay at home. They dont need to go to gatherings of over 10 people. I wouldnt go to them at all, if you have a choice. And if you do, nature people are social distancing, whether youre going to an Outdoor Church service or something of that nature, and just be doing what we are saying. The thing is, what i would tell families, and what ive told my own mother, and i know marty has told her mom, they are of the age, they are in that class where this virus is deadly for them. We are telling them to stay at home, you know, or stay in surroundings where you know people have not been moving around, and just protect yourself. Thats what we need families to do. If your parents are somewhere else, just wait a couple of weeks, if you can. Them chat with them, skype , go drop their groceries off and wave and talk to them from the street. Theres ways you can interact still not risk it. It is not worth it, for two weeks. We have seen this virus will literally take certain people out in just a matter of a day or so, and others not so long. Nobody really knows for sure exactly what is causing that with each individual. People are affected differently. Holdld hope you would not me to this exact number, but i think about two thirds of our fatalities from the virus in this date were medically fragile. And of an older population. Dr. Toomey is whispering, if not more than that. Thank you, good information. Appreciate it. Governor, with the shelterinplace requirement starting, have you thought to what the consequence of violating that would be in light of the fact that the state of department of corrections is looking to reduce populations as our local jailers . Gov. Kemp the penalties in the statute are already laid out. His demeanor, fine. Look, my directive is not to go rent and lock a bunch of people up if they are not adhering to any of our orders right now. What we want to do is get people to comply with this, because if we write somebody a ticket because they have violated the taking action, hopefully they wont do it again, but they still did it in the first place and put somebody at risk. Thats why we want people to adhere to this, but make no mistake, if we have those people out there that are not adhering to this, or if they are going to a facility and they are not moving along, then we will take that action. The same with a business. I cant tell you how many businesses we have called and said weve got a complaint that you are not following the social distancing guidelines and other things that are in the current order. And i mean, people were reacting immediately, going, we are on top of it, we will get it fixed. What we want to be able to do is not make that call at all. To have to have a Law Enforcement official go up and write someone a warning or a ticket, but we will. We would rather people just comply and try to do the right thing. Commissioner to meet mentioned there are over 40 longterm care facilities that had confirmed outbreaks. Im aware of to that you have announced, one in albany and one in thomasville. Can you talk about how youre making those selections and who will get that enhanced assistance . Gov. Kemp we are responding to a list that is provided by the department of Public Health and the department of Community Health. That identified Nursing Homes that have outbreaks. We look at the ones that have the most positive patients incarnate that with the department of Public Health and Community Health. In the Georgia Health Care Association. We deploy the team and then provide essentially what you might consider an a la Carte Service to the nursing home administrator. We offer a number of services from education and training on how to properly wear ppe, how to put it on, how to take it off, how to prevent crosscontamination, all the way down to wiping down the facilities and doing direct Infection Control. I was down in pelham right before i came here today and we had some 20 soldiers engaged in helping that particular facility improve its Infection Control. They are very appreciative of that support we look forward to helping other facilities as they fight this invisible enemy. I think you. Thank you. One of the number one questions weve been getting into our newsroom, todays the first of the month. A lot of people say they cannot make their mortgage or rent payment this month. What is your guidance to people who maybe are in that situation or maybe to the landlords who are anticipating collecting that money . Gov. Kemp i would certainly tell people to just get in touch with their landlord. Everybody is in the same boat, right . A lot of people that are renting, a lot of people who have mortgages, its going to be tough to pay if they have lost their job. I know help is on the way from washington, but those Mortgage Companies and Business Owners are in the same boat, too. I know a lot of Financial Institutions are holding off on people taking payments, if they have renters who havent paid. I think that is a great move by those Financial Institutions. People, telltell your landlord your situation, and im sure they will be willing to work with you. We will continue to look at things that a state level. We are helping facilitate a lot of sba contacts and other things to try to help people from our end. More of that help will be coming from the federal level with the stimulus checks, and we have increased Unemployment Benefits, snap benefits and other things per what secretary perdue and others have worked on at the usda. More. Unfortunately, with this announcement there are going to be a lot of people who are headed out the door right now to the Grocery Store. What is your message to georgians about keeping calm . Gov. Kemp look, people dont need to panic. I understand people are scared. We have never seen anything like this. As i mentioned at the close of my speech, we dont need to be afraid. Weve got a great team working on this. The supply lines for groceries and medications and everything else. If we have to, we will put the National Guard and the Georgia State patrol, getting groceries and supplies to the business is to keep our families fed, to keep the edison slowing, to get Health Care Equipment that is coming into our state. People do not need to panic and worry about that. If youre going to the Grocery Store tonight, i get it. We are not implementing the order tonight. We will put it out tomorrow, so we have a couple of days for people to adjust and get ready. The grocers are ready for this. They will be ready to restock. They have been limiting their hours so they can do that. So people dont need to worry about buying for two weeks or two months. Get what you need where you can shelter up for a while and stay home, and then leave some for the other folks. Give us overnight and we will have the grocery folks restock the shelves. Manyve already taken actions to keep the supply chain open and we will continue to do that. One final question from colleague. Why is the georgia lottery still operating if it encourages hand to hand contact . Gov. Kemp i have not talking to the lotteries on how they are handling that. A lot of the Convenience Stores are putting in best practices. That is certainly something we can look into. I know a lot of people have worked on pointofsale transactions to be able to do that without having that physical interaction. I know this is going to be another metal you will have to deal with in the weeks to come having to deal with the state budget and collections revenue. For those hardworking teachers and other state employees across the state that were hoping for a raise this year, what can you tell them now generally speaking . Go k