News conference in atlanta and outlined guidelines for local businesses to follow in the process. Gov. Kemp good afternoon, everyone. Today i am joined with Lieutenant Governor geoff duncan, speaker david ralston, general tom carden, dr. Toomey. First of all i want to let all the georgians know who experienced rough weather last night that we have them and our thoughts and prayers. Certainly was not nearly as bad as the weekend before, but nevertheless we had folks who had homes damaged and other tragic things happen along with loss of power. We will certainly keep them and our thoughts and prayers and certainly appreciate the whole georgia team working with locals on the response overnight and this morning. As of noon today, we now have 18,947 covid19 cases in georgia, with 733 deaths. The state lab has processed 5362 tests, and commercial vendors have processed 78,966 tests. We understand that these are more than just numbers. These are georgians that we are talking about. There are families and communities impacted, and certainly all the victims and their loved ones continue to be in our thoughts and prayers. We lift all those up who are battling this terrible virus. We remain focused on the safety and wellbeing of every person who calls georgia home. Last week the white house issued guidelines for it states to begin safely reopening our nations economy. We appreciate the leadership and share in the president s desire to reopen the economy and get americans back to work. As a Small Business owner for over 30 years, i know the impact that this pandemic has had on hardworking georgians in every zip code and in every Community Across our state. With tightened supply and limited demand, our farmers continued to struggle to keep employees on the payroll. As Small Business owners, they are seeing sales plummet, and the company they built with the blood, sweat, and tears is literally disappearing in front of them. Our contract workers are struggling to put food on the table. Large businesses, which serve as anchors in many georgia towns, are scaling back operations, leaving some with reduced hours and some with no jobs. These are tough moments in our state and our nation. I hear the concerns of those im honored to serve. I see the terrible impact of covid19 on Public Health as well as the pocketbooks. Informed by the Coronavirus Task force and Public Health officials opening up america , again includes three phases to safely reopen and get folks back to work. To initiate phase one, a state must meet a series of basic criteria, which can be tailored to reflect specific circumstances for a region or statewide approach. For weeks now, our state has taken targeted action to prevent, detect, and address the spread of coronavirus by leveraging data and advice from Health Officials in the public and private sectors. Thanks to this methodical approach and the millions of georgians who have literally worked diligently to slow the spread of coronavirus, we are on track to meet the criteria for phase one. Fore gating criteria phase one. According to the department of Public Health, reports of emergency room visits for flulike illnesses are declining, documented covid19 cases have flattened and appear to be declining, and we have seen declining emergency room visits in general. By expanding our hospital bed capacity, including the temporary facility at the Georgia World Congress center, we have the ability to treat patients without crisis care in hospital settings. Our proactive actions have reduced stress and strain on our area hospitals as well as the communities and the families that they serve. Now, a key component of the gating criteria is testing. For weeks i have expressed my frustration at the status of testing, and committed more resources to expansion. We have partnered with the University System of georgia, partnered with the private sector and offer drivethrough services, and recently empowered Public Health departments across georgia to offer testing for all symptomatic individuals and specific asymptomatic individuals. Today we are taking that effort to a different level. By announcing an even Broader Partnership with the state dedicated health system, to double down on our Testing Capacity and meet the requirements necessary to move forward with the president s plan. As many of you know, august University Health launched telemedicine app as part of their comprehensive plan to screen, test, and treat georgia patients through an algorithm designed medical experts at the Medical College of georgia. This app has enhanced Public Health while reducing exposure to our doctors, nurses, and medical staff. We are encouraging symptomatic georgians and asymptomatic individuals on the front lines or in longterm care facilities to download this app this week and begin the screening process. Georgians can access the app by visiting augustahealth. Org or downloading auhealth express care on your smartphone. You can also call 7067211852. This free app is user friendly, and through this app, physicians and providers from augusta University Health and the Medical College of georgia are available to users 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you begin to display symptoms consistent with covid19, day or night, you can log into the auhealth telemedicine app, or call and get screened by a clinician. If you meet the criteria for testing, the app will contact you to schedule a test at one of the states designated testing locations near your home. Your Health Care Information will be securely transmitted to your designated testing site. This streamlined Testing Process reduces stress on both the patients and the testing site workers. Once you arrive for your appointment, you will provide a specimen for testing. From there, we will leverage the power of several key academic institutions in this state to process these tests. These include augusta university, emory university, Georgia State university, and the georgia Public Health labs. In roughly 72 hours you will be able to access your test results via a secure patient portal, and a medical provider will contact you directly if you are positive. The clinician will assist you with enrolling in the Self Reporting app by google named mtx, where, with patient consent, then can use monitoring and tracing. Through this partnership, Agusta University will produce testing swabs in the Dental College of georgia Innovation Labs. By using the same 3d printers that have produced face shields for our health care workers, the Innovation Lab will create thousands of swabs per day. This capacity greatly reduces our dependence on visitors, on vendors, and government entities, as we boost testing and get georgians back into the workplace. Under the leadership of ceo katrina keifer, chief medical officer dr. Cool, general carden, and dr. Toomey, Agusta University will rollout this app statewide throughout the week. Our office will release more details and timelines very soon. In addition, the National Guard will mobilize 10 new strike teams to deploy to hotspots, longterm care facilities, to administer 15,000 tests per day. Testing expansion through Agusta University and the guard will complement existing conditions, including the department capacity, georgia techs cvs testing site, and our private labs. As i have said before, testing defines the field and informs our longterm strategy. These efforts increase our capacity, as we take measured steps forward. Through this process, from creating the Coronavirus Task force, to today, we have relied on data, science, and the advice of Health Care Professionals to guide our approach and decisionmaking. We have been surgical, targeted, and methodical, always putting the health and wellbeing of our citizens first. And doing our best to protect lives and livelihoods in every part of our state. In the same way that we carefully closed nuisances and and urgedes operations to end to negate the virus spread, today we are announcing plans to incrementally and safely reopen sectors of our economy. To help in this battle against covid19, Health Care Facilities across georgia voluntarily paused elective surgeries to reduce equipment and personnel shortages. This selfless act by Health Care Leaders enhanced our ability to keep georgians safe. However, many now find themselves in a difficult financial situation. Some losing millions of dollars a day as they sacrifice for the greater good. This is not sustainable longterm for these facilities. Given recent changes in modeling as it relates to Surge Capacity and national supply, as the needs of other states diminish, and following weeks of discussions with Hospital Leaders and medical providers, i believe georgia is positioned to secure the necessary personal protective equipment for Health Care Facilities to resume elective surgeries deemed essential. Hospitals should continue discussions in their regions to ensure Patient Safety and the safety of their workforce, making sure that is a priority. I want to applaud all of the hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers, doctors offices, dental offices, physical therapists, and Health Care Professionals that answered the call of duty and voluntarily closed their doors. It is impossible for me to adequately express my grateful appreciation to you all. And to the georgians who waited on getting an important procedure to allow us to get to the other side of this curve, i also would like to thank you. Your sacrifice literally helped us save lives. Given the favorable data, enhanced testing, and approval of our Health Care Professionals, we will allow gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, s aestheticians, and related schools, to reopen their doors this friday, april 24. Unlike other businesses, these entities have been unable to manage inventory, deal with payroll, and take care of the while wetive items shelterinplace. This measure allows them to undertake baseline operations that most other businesses in the state have maintained since i issued the shelterinplace order. This measure will apply statewide and will be the operational standard in all jurisdictions. This means local action cannot be taken that is more or less restrictive. Over the next few days, we will continue to closely monitor existing and potential hotspots in our state. I stay in regular contact with local leaders across georgia, especially those in Dougherty County and surrounding counties, to ensure that we are providing adequate support. Right now, in albany and Dougherty County, we are seeing great improvement. I talk to the Commission Chair on a regular basis, to ask if further action is warranted. And rest assured if any Community Needs the state to intervene, we will do so with their input, as well as their partnership. Now, the next point is a very important one. The entities which i am reopening are not reopening as business as usual. Each of these entities will be subject to specific restrictions, including adherence to the minimum basic operations, social distancing, and regular sanitation. Minimum basic operations include but is not limited to screening workers for fever and respiratory illness, enhancing workplace sanitation, wearing gloves and masks if appropriate, separating workspaces by at least 6 feet, and teleworking where possible, and implementing staggered shifts. Subject to the specific social distancing and sanitation mandates, theaters, private social clubs, and restaurant dinein services will be allowed to reopen on monday, april 27. We will release more information over the next few days. Bars, nightclubs, operators of Amusement Park rides, and Live Performance venues will remain closed. In the days ahead, we will be evaluating the data and conferring with Public Health officials to determine the best course of action for those establishments. By taking this measured action, we will get georgians back to work safely without undermining the progress that we all have made in this battle against covid19. Todays announcement is a small step forward and to be treated as such. The shelterinplace order is still active. And will expire at 11 59 p. M. On april 30 for most georgians. We urge everyone to continue to follow cdc and dph guidance by sheltering in place as you can. Limit your travel, and limit who goes with you on errands to prevent potential exposure. If possible, wear a mask or covered clothing when you are in public to slow the spread of coronavirus. For the medically fragile and elderly georgians, make plans to shelterinplace through may 13. The date georgias Public Health emergency expires. Given the heightened risk of adverse consequences from your exposure to coronavirus, this is recommended, and the safest path forward. We will release more details as we near the end of the month so the medically fragile and elderly georgians will have adequate time to prepare. I want to continue to call on all my fellow georgians to protect our elderly. Limit your direct contact and help them navigate the weeks ahead. As i have been doing with my mom, during this time to ensure to make sure she does not have to go out, i urge all georgians to do the same for your loved ones and your neighbors, if you are able. Do what you can to help those in need. For places of worship, holding inperson services is allowed, but under the phase one guidelines it must be done in accordance with strict social distancing protocols. I urge faith leaders to continue to help us in this effort to keep their congregation safe by heeding the advice of Public Health officials. Of Course Online or drivethru Services Remain a good option. I want to thank all the faith leaders across the state who have stepped up and put their congregations, many times in front of their own institutions, for the greater good. I am so thankful for you wall, and i know of many of you, that is a painful decision you had to make, and i know that financially it is tough as well. I feel that pain myself. But i want to thank you and encourage you to do the right thing and to help us continue to fight the coronavirus. I also realize you people that want to go back to in person services. And if you do, just make sure you are following the advice and guidelines. And i have spoken to many who are already implementing those policies, and we are glad to help you in that fight. While i am encouraged by the data, proud of what we have accomplished, and confident at our plan moving forward, i know that the journey ahead will be a long one. We must remain laserfocused on defeating this virus and keeping our citizens safe. We must find ways to revitalize communities that have literally been devastated by covid19. We must identify opportunities for Economic Growth and prosperity. We will have to have tough conversations about the budget, state spending, and our priorities as a state. Those conversations are underway, but here is what i know. If we remain united, as we have in this fight against covid19, we can overcome the challenges and the obstacles that are ahead of us. But if we allow politics, partisanship, elections and egos to divide us during this important inflection point, our entire state will suffer. As we begin this process, this measured, deliberate step forward, lets reaffirm our commitment to one another, to the greater good, and to georgias future. Because i am confident we will emerge victorious. And with your help and gods grace, we will continue to build a safer, stronger, and more prosperous state for our families, and our generations to come. Thank you all. God bless you. It is my honor to turn the podium over to the Lieutenant Governor geoff duncan. I want to thank both of these gentlemen for a great partnership, for their support, and for also being with us today. Lt. Gov. Duncan thank you. I want to start by thanking you for your consistent leadership through this crisis we are dealing with. Your team has communicated well to the General Assembly and i want to thank you very much for that consistent leadership you have shown us. I want to thank the departments and agencies who continue to keep the health and wellbeing of georgians in their focus. I want to thank the director and doctor. I also want to thank millions of georgians who are personally sacrificing so much right now for the better good. For your families, your communities, your businesses, your education. I want to personally thank so many of those people in georgia for the sacrifice throughout this pandemic. I have spent a good bit of time the last four weeks trying to understand the additional issues and concerns that have arisen during this process, not just the health care crisis, but the unintended consequences of the aging out process. I want to thank the governor and his team for accepting our letter of recommendation around the additional opportunity of things we can do around foster care. I also want to address Mental Health. It continues to be a growing issue. I urge everybody who is suffering from mental depression or Mental Illness right now to reach out to a friend, reach out for your community or state resources, to understand that this, too, will pass. Another area of concern for us is continuing to look at the budget. As we focus on the fiscal year 2021 budget, it is hard to imagine how much that vision has changed since just a few short weeks ago here when we were back in the General Assembly. I am additionally saddened by the passing of a great friend of mine and a great friend of the state of georgia, senator jack hill, who unexpectedly passed away a few short weeks ago. We now have a new appropriations chairman and we continue to work closely with the governor and the house to understand a budget process as we move forward. Pressprich and for today incorporation for today and an ongoing process the governor highlighted about bringing georgia back online, getting folks back to work, i have spent a great deal of time the past 10 days speaking to ceos of the Largest Companies in georgia and Small Business owners in every corner of the state, to understand what can we better understand about your business, with your industry, what can we do better as a state, and its been encouraging to hear the input from so many different businesses and industries. Because no business or industry is going to come out of this crisis the same. It is important to lean heavily on innovation, and to lean onto those businesses to come up with the best strategies forward. I was encouraged through the 10 days of calls to continue to hear them be respectful and grateful for the governors leadership throughout this entire process. We continue to hear great ideas come forward and continue to work closely with the governor on trying to execute these best strategies moving forward. As a result of my phone calls and conversations with these business leaders, i will be delivering to the governor an executive summary of those for his consideration as we move forward. I want, to thank those on the front lines, our First Responders, medical profession ours, and our teachers and those helping us get through this crisis. I am proud to be a georgian, and this too will pass. I now want to call on the speaker of the house, david ralston, to make some comments. Rep. Ralston thank you very much Lieutenant Governor duncan, and to Governor Kemp. I want to begin by joining with the Lieutenant Governor in expresssing my appreciation to Governor Kemp for his tireless commitment to battling this war. For many, many weeks now. I know that it is a job in which there is not a day off. Your efforts have not gone unnoticed. I want to say thank you on behalf of many grateful georgians. Also to dr. Toomey and director bryson, whose performances have made me proud to be a georgian. Thank you very much for all you have done. And to general carden and all our National Guardsmen. So many people are working hard against the monster of the coronavirus that has upended lives, and has really changed life for georgians in ways that we will never fully grasp. We will never get back to normal and we will find a new and better normal. We are here today to take steps to reopening the state. And as the governor said, these are measured, balanced steps. They do not go as far as some would like, but i think they go as far as we can responsibly go at this time. And i think that we have struck a good balance between putting people back to work. You know, this virus really is touching lives of many, many, many georgians. I was reflecting as i was listening, that somewhere in this state this afternoon, there are many georgia families, many business owners, that are fearful about what lies ahead. Fearful about watching their business go away that they have devoted a lifetime to. Fearful of not having a job. Fearful of how they are going to take care of their children. There are other georgians who are probably getting the news this afternoon that a loved one has died, alone. This is touching so many people, so deeply. But i think that we have taken measures today, and i want to applaud the governor for these steps. They are small steps, but they are responsible steps for a problem that you cannot solve with a slogan, or a Bumper Sticker expression. Its gonna take a lot of hard work, it is going to take following the science and following the data. That is what we have done to the best of our ability in this. As georgians, its important that we stay together. The community i live in has embraced the slogan, stronger together. And that is truly what we have to embrace as an entire state, that we will only be stronger if we are together. So, may god bless all of you, and may god bless the great state of georgia. Thank you very much. Gov. Kemp thank you so much, speaker ralston and Lieutenant Governor duncan, for being here today but also for your strong support. We look forward to working with you as we fight this enemy and also work on the budget and getting our economy back to the great place it was before this happened. I had a call today with the Vice President and the nations governors and the Vice President called on me to give an update on what our National Guard is doing. I think our state can be proud of what general carden is doing to help get food to the needy across our state, to sanitize our longterm care facilities and many other facilities, training people in sanitation practices and protocols to stay safe in those environments. Working with prisons, industries, Food Processing industries, and also training in other states. We are proud of what the National Guard is doing at general carden is going to talk about a mission he has been working on the last few days. General carden . Maj. Gen. Carden thank you. Certainly proud of your georgia National Guard and the things the governor mentioned. As of today, we have sanitized more than 523 longterm care facilities in georgia, 66 of the 790 longterm care facilities in our state. It is an honor to make most vulnerable safer. With respect to the new mission, the governor asked us last week and it was a directive, it did not come in the form of a question. He wanted us to partner with fema and the department of Public Health and academia to bring those teams together to see what we could do to increase testing. The governor covered the most important tenets of improving testing in georgia. At the end of the day, this program involves a couple of Strategic Initiatives one of , which is a 24 7 Operations Center out of Agusta University. That will serve as Governor Kemps unblinking eye on coronavirus. It enables workflow, manages logistics, works closely with the department of Public Health, and all initiatives underway to bring it together and make sure we are sharing information and increasing Situational Awareness and understanding across the agencies and academia. The governor also mentioned our mobile strike teams, 10 of which we stood up on friday. Over the weekend we tested 963 georgians in our longterm care facilities and our Law Enforcement and First Responder community. Today we intend to test 1500 georgians in similarly disposed areas across our state. We can scale that up quickly and are only limited by the number of tests available to us. As we link those initiatives together, we will be able to paint the picture for our governor, for our state leadership, and particularly for dr. Toomey and her department as we fight coronavirus. One thing i have learned about this, not being a medical professional, is that testing is not a cure, and is not easy. One thing i am clear on, it is a priority to our governor. It is a priority to our fema director and to our Public Health officials and state leaders. We are going to Work Together. We have seen what happens in this state when public, private, and academia, when those partnerships come together and everyone is rolling in the same direction. Many great things happen to make georgia safer. I can assure you we will not fail in this endeavor. Gov. Kemp thank you, general carden. Appreciate all of your folks teams out there, almost 3000 georgians doing this work. You have gotten georgians attention, but the nation as well, so job well done. Part of the next battle of our fight is going to be something dr. Toomey is going to talk about. Dr. Toomey . Dr. Toomey good afternoon. When the president talk about these steps we needed to take to ensure we as a nation could fight this virus, he said we have to have adequate hospital capacity, adequate testing, and adequate Contact Tracing to ensure we can identify not only cases through testing about every person, every situation where these individuals have been to ensure we can stop spread in the community. We have now reached the point of the spread of the outbreak in georgia where we must begin that aggressively. You may have heard this before, an old publichealth term. When we have measles outbreaks, we do Contact Tracings and investigations on where those cases occurred and who they might have come in contact with. It is a foundation of Public Health practice for many infectious diseases, including tuberculosis. The difference here for covid is because so many individuals are infected. Already with the thousands of cases we have, we have surpassed many fold the number of notifiable diseases of all types we have had reported to us this year alone. So, it is literally going to take a village for us to Work Together to do this. I wanted to tell you how this is being structured. Our Epidemiology Team at the state office are the incident commanders. They are beginning training and putting together training videos so they can train, not only staff in the districts, but also volunteers to help us do this. You may have seen other states have been able to enlist others in the community to help. We are aggressively reaching out to our University Systems, who have many people. Mph students, medical students who are not now in classes who will join and help us with Contact Tracing throughout the state. When we get information about a new individual who is infected with covid19, we will reach out to them, talk to them, and find out not only with whom they may be living in coming and regular contact, but where they have gone, where they have been shopping, where they have been out in the community that we can address those exposures. In the past, we have done this manually, with our staff monitoring through computers. Now with the wonders of google and google apps, we have a computer app to help us with that. We are finalizing that in the week ahead. It is being customized to our own needs to be able to not only put individuals names in and monitor them, but have them help us identify additional contacts we may not know. Working in partnership with volunteers in the community as well as statewide Public Health teams, this has shifted to become our priority focus in the weeks ahead. This is the way we are going to stop the virus, the way we are going to keep spread from occurring even as we gradually open up the state. That is Contact Tracing for covid19, a little different, a little more aggressive. Now with additional tools than we had for other infections like tuberculosis. But incredibly important at this stage in the state. Before i sit, i just wanted to mention one thing i know you are going to ask me about, so i want to be proactive. What are the data you are looking at that allow you to say we are at the point where we can make this transition . Those data, those gating data, were outlined by dr. Birx a few days ago. We have put those data on our website and will continue to ost those daily. What you can see is that in terms of covid cases, articularly the rolling total, which smooths out the curve and makes it easier to analyze, we definitely have a plateauing and what appears to be now a decline. By the end of the week and certainly by the end of the shelterinplace, that will be the two week decline required o remove the shelterinplace. More than a two week decline, frankly. Our Emergency Department visits have been reduced to almost nothing by our surveillance system. Thats really a remarkable situation that reflects the fact we have advised people to not go to Emergency Rooms and go to other providers or use telehealth with your providers rather than Emergency Rooms for your care. I wanted to point out that these will be on the web. They will be accessible to the public as well as to you to report on. Together with you, we will monitor those trends and if needs be, do midcourse corrections in our plans as we move forward in the days ahead. The other thing i wanted you to note, although this is not one of the gating criteria if you look at our report of deaths from covid, they have declined dramatically. I think that reflects not only that we have the hospital apacity and have worked hard to ensure we have the appropriate care for individuals with covid19, but also that we are reaching out and being more proactive in efforts to identify people early in their infection. I think this is a really good sign that we are identifying individuals and ensuring they get the care they need before they reach a stage of the disease where they are very ick. We are expanding testing and under general cardens leadership we will be working with him to ensure that throughout the state testing is widely available to everyone. Thank you very much. Gov. Kemp i think we will do some questions if anybody has got them. Obviously anybody that was there, including homer, is glad to answer any questions. Some Public Health experts are warning lifting restrictions could trigger more outbreaks. You have outlined plans to expand testing. Are you confident georgia has enough Testing Capacity to reopen without risking another wave . What do you say to epidemiologists worried this could lead to another cycle of closings later on this year . Gov. Kemp a lot of people were giving that warning even before they knew what we were planning today, so i dont know if they had Something Different in mind. That we were going to do away with shelterinplace and the minimum operations we have, the 20 plus guidelines that we ave. I would urge them to look at the plan we have and also heed the remarks that dr. Toomey ade. Did not do this unilaterally. I talked to dr. Toomey and many other people. I think our citizens are ready for this. Dr. Toomey and i were just talking about this. People know what social distancing is. They are learning what mitigation was when we went through it and we are still trying to do. We talked the day before we came out, they are fixing to learn a lot more about Contact Tracing, a big part of the next step. Think this is the right pproach at the right time. T is not just throwing the keys back to business owners. We are talking about people that the government shut down their business, unlike many other businesses that have been operating under these same platforms the whole time shelterinplace was going on. We are now allowing businesses that were closed to do the same thing. We did not turn them all back on. We felt it was appropriate to delay the dining restaurants a few more days and turn them back on on monday versus friday. They need time to prepare, order food, hire workers. That also gives us more time to continue to flatten the curve, make sure the industry has time. We have talked to them. They are working on ideas for how they can take care of their customers. The private sector is going to have to convince the public it is safe to come back into these businesses. We have seen some very innovative people out there making those changes to their business practices. Thats what a barber is going to have to do, what a hair salon is going to have to do, what a Tattoo Parlor is going to have to do. We are talking about not large groups of people. We feel like the gyms and fitness clubs can social distance, but they have got to do stringent cleaning of the machines that people are using, or whatever the exercise regime is. We think people will responsibly do that. If they dont, we have the ability to act on that like we have with the current order. I think we are taking the right, measured approach at the right time. The data we are seeing puts us into that category dr. Birx talked about in the president s plan. We will continue to monitor other things as we move forward and continue to get this virus on the downward trend, which that is the direction it is heading. When we have more people moving around, we are probably going to seek cases continue to go up, but we are more prepared for that than we were a month ago. We have the hospital bed capacity, the community knowledge. We have a lot of things in place. The ramped up testing, Contact Tracing we are going to be doing. I believe we are going to stay on top of it. Like i said in my remarks, if we have a community starting to become a hotspot, i will take further action. Right now i feel like we are in a good spot to move forward. Maj. Gen. Carden we were at 45 out of 54 states and territories. We are right at 43 out of 54 states and territories, but that is a lagging indicator. The leading indicator is the acceleration since last week. If you compare us to other states with respect to acceleration in the last week, we are at 28 out of 54 states and territories. That will be significantly accelerated next week as we have mobilized the mobile trike teams. We put this 24 7 Operation Center together to manage work low, logistics, and the overall operation do not only paint the picture for the governor and senior staff, our department of Public Health, but it also makes sure there are no logistics left on the table. We will only be limited by two things the supply of test its. I believe now we can execute more test kits then we can get in right now. The next place the supply line will break is with lab capacity. Our desire to Work Together of public, private, and academia. We dont have as much as we want. It is not easy to do coronavirus testing. Trying to test almost 11 Million People in georgia is like trying to ball the ocean. We need to make sure state leaders have enough testing at their disposal to make informed decisions. Is that another thousand, another 2000 . My goal is to drive it until the system breaks. Right now we are sitting at 0. 71 overall. If you look at the highest state in the country, it is rhode island. We have more people in one county than rhode island has. They are a little over 3 with respect to testing. New york is bigger than us. They had a hotspot earlier than we did, bigger and more pronounced. They tested just more than 3 in new york. We are trying to make sure we can do as much as we can do, given logistics. I would love to tell you we would like to test 10 of the population, but thats not realistic. We are going to test what we can source for. Governor kemp, if you could for the sake of summary and clarification, exactly which businesses will be allowed to reopen on friday . Which ones will be allowed to reopen on monday . I know under several restrictions. What is the plan for everyone else after that . Gov. Kemp the last question first. The rest of the timeline for ramping backup, entertainment venues, concerts, we are just going to continue to follow the data. I dont have a target for that right now. The businesses that are opening up monday are the dine in restaurants. This friday, barbershops, hair salons, massage, therapy places, elective surgeries. Some of the schools for these individuals. I think i mentioned artist parlors, Tattoo Parlors, places dr. Toomey advised me when we were in the throes of this that contact is not a good thing to e doing. Now that we have the medical facilities stood up, that we have the Contact Tracing stood up, that we are doing a lot better job on testing and will be in the days ahead, people can go back to these activities as long as they are following the guidelines we have. That list of 20 things, leaning. Obviously if somebody is giving a haircut, it is a good idea for them to be wearing a mask and do extra cleaning on the chair after the customer leaves. Not packing the waiting room at a barbershop or salon, but do appointment only. Call people when they are sitting in the car and when a chair opens, that the next person come in. Georgians that are Small Business owners, those people have good common sense and we trust them to use it. If they abuse it, we will take further action. I believe they can do that as part of this measured approach. I know you are basing decisions on medical science, data, and the best advice you can get medically and conomically. If you could share with us your thought process and how this is weighing on you, this could be one of the most important decisions you will ever make in your personal or political life. Because so much depends on getting it right. Reopening too soon, you can imagine the potential consequences. What goes through your mind when you think about that . Gov. Kemp i can tell you i dont give a damn about politics right now. We are talking about somebody that has put their whole life into building a business, that has people they love and work with every single day working in many of these places that are at home going broke, orrying about whether they can eed their children, make the ortgage payment. These are tough decisions, no doubt. I have had to make many of them. And i can promise you i will have to make more of them. But we have also got to think about the effects on our economy and on these individuals from a mental and physical health perspective, and literally people being able to put food on their tables. I believe this measured approach has got us to the time to trust our people, to keep going after in beating this virus, but doing it in a way that is responsible. I believe the people that own these businesses as well as the people that work in them are ok doing that for a few more weeks until we can move into phase two. It may not be they can all go back to work every day. You may be able to go every other day and split the workforce up to get the doors open, get money flowing, and get those people to where they can feed their family. I understand the health care ramifications as well. I have been getting the calls from people saying, we need ppe. We dont have a bed for a hospital patient. That is why we have been working for over a month standing up additional acilities. Literally homer and general carden have been across the world trying to find supplies and equipment. Health care workers to help us in this time of need. We have battled a lot, but it is amazing what this team has done under nothing no one has ever seen. We have every state and territory in the United States under this emergency declaration, the first time it has ever happened. You dont have two or three states that got hit by a tornado. You have 50 states. So this is unprecedented. Yes, these things weigh on you. All i can do is work hard every day, listen to the good advice i am getting, and make the best educated decision i can going forward. I believe i have done that today. In enforcing these restrictions, state Law Enforcement officers have only issued about two dozen citations over the first two weeks of your shelterinplace order. How do you ensure businesses follow these guidelines and Law Enforcement has the resources to make sure they comply . Gov. Kemp we are going to put out additional guidelines through the week, so we will continue to answer these questions working with the industry folks. Thats why we gave ourselves a few days before this goes into effect, so we can be methodical, get people educated. Our goal with Law Enforcement was never to arrest a bunch of georgians for not following the order. I think our citizens understand for the most part how important this was and did it voluntarily. Those who did not or did not know, we have helped educate them. For those that after they were educated wanted to be obstructionist, we started writing tickets and discussing other methods in conjunction with local Law Enforcement and state officials. We get reports throughout the day. We have two Conference Calls a day with over 24 people on them giving reports about where we are. Many calls have been Law Enforcement related, monitoring state parks and beaches. Most of the people we have had to talk to have been very understanding and do exactly as we said. Thats what we are asking georgians to do. If they do not, we will take steps if required. They also need to understand that if they dont follow this guidance, they could be putting the lives of their customers and their family and their neighbors at risk. Governor, you talked about the Financial Hardship for many georgians during this time. Many states have adopted a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures. Is that something you have or will consider . Gov. Kemp we are considering anything we are getting suggested. I am getting a lot of advice and a lot of suggestions, which i appreciate. It helps me keep close to the attle at hand. We have not had indepth discussions about that. I have had a few people that have raised that issue and we will continue to consider that. I have not taken any action. The general mentioned they are going to do everything they can. Everything is working except at the backend in terms of the supplies and kits. How do you overcome that when that is a problem not just here, but nationally . Gov. Kemp we had a lot of good information on the call today with the Vice President. They talked about the supply chains for swabs and other things. I felt good about what he told us today, the reports we got from a lot of individuals involved in that. I think the supplies are going to continue to loosen up, really from a nationwide perspective. Also i think you have hotspots like new york, california, washington, new orleans, and others that are coming off the peak. That will continue to open up supplies of certain things. The industry knows we got to test. I am sure people are working 24 7 on that, and we will continue to do that. What i have charged general carden to do is take every test we got and use it every single day. When we run out, we will figure out how to get more. I believe if we run out, it will be easier to get tests. That is our first goal. Our second goal is we are trying to take, where we can, our destiny in our own hands. That is why Agusta University, the dental school, being able to 3d printing these swabs is so powerful for us. I believe more swabs are coming. The Vice President talked about that. Iterally over one million they are going to have delivered this week, another 800,000 next week. I cant remember the other numbers he said. That made me feel good when i heard that today. We are going to do some of that right here in georgia and control our own destiny. Governor kemp, can we talk about the prisons, nursing omes, and lottery . Given some of the changes coming up this week, can you address those populations in terms of testing and what is happening with prisons, Nursing Homes, and the lottery . Gov. Kemp i can let general carden speak more on Nursing Homes and prisons with testing stuff. It might be good for you to hear from him on that. What was the question on the lottery . There are some folks asking about whats changing in terms of that. We have had viewers call in about the georgia lottery and that is something you said you were looking into. Gov. Kemp i have not considered changing our current practices at the moment. Eneral carden . Let me first address what we are doing in prisons, and the department of juvenile justice, and Mental Health facilities across the state. He Infection Control teams that we put together initially for Nursing Homes demonstrated a whole lot of utility and our Behavioral Health facilities. We also trained members of the department of corrections in our techniques and procedures, as well as juvenile justice. They have been trained, they are able to deploy those techniques to prevent people from getting covid19 to start with. S we deploy these strike teams. Here we see our jet enemy generate a masss in Nursing Homes, and all of our longterm care facility. That is the focus. We are bringing Law Enforcement and First Responder, article of instructor workers into that full. As the department of corrections generate a demand signal back to the director, act ii Public Health, we have to focus that capacity on where our Public Health officials think it is most effective first. As more capacity comes on line, we are certainly going to deploy at in areas where obviously people are together closely, and many environments. We are focusing on all of that. With respect to our Nursing Homes, i have seen a lot of reports on what is and what is not happening in Nursing Homes across the country. I can tell you what is happening in georgia. I would challenge you to find a tate or territory that has more than 1,300 Service Members deployed to make those living in longterm care facilities more safe. We get calls every single day from other states and other entities wanting to know what we are doing in georgia in these longterm care facilities. We shared this just in the last few days with alabama, missouri, montana, and iowa, just to name a few. I am proud what our teams are doing in our longterm care facilities. We are going to to continue to do all we can in the Behavioral Health committee, and apartment of juvenile justice. To help our teammates on the left and right to be successful in this fight. With the agusta partnership, is this new senators centers you will be opening up in terms of more testing for those folks ith the app . I am glad you asked that question. With respect to the app and the process, what we did, went over and took a look at it. The doctor determined that it was scalable. You take something that works in you scale it very rapidly, then you can quickly put yourself in the position to achieve what your boss wants you to do. The governor said to increase testing, and we saw that that is essentially a fastmoving horse that we can put a saddle on really quick, and believe it is going to work. Agusta University Great teammates. It is not limited to just Agusta University. The University System of georgia has been nothing but supportive, and they are driving this initiative. Our private partners are driving this initiative. This is and us and we mission. We are looking at existing sites, but also recognizing parts of georgia that dont have testing sites. We are not limited. We are actually trying to actively identify additional areas. E will also add those as well. Governor kemp, my question to you is based on the way things have gone so far in our state in regards to the coronavirus, what grade would you give yourself as far as showing your ship and handling the situation . Gov. Kemp i think the press has been doing a pretty good job about following what we are doing. I am not in the business of grading myself. I can just tell you i am working hard every day to fight this virus, and to do what i can to keep our people safe. How much have you courted actions with other states . Coordinated actions with other states . Gov. Kemp i dont want to speak to what other governors are doing. We did have a call saturday, we felt it would be a good dea. It was a great call, a lot of great governors on there that i know very well, have great relationships. They are very honest and pragmatic people. Everybody is dealing with different issues in their state. Depends on the size of their state, what mississippi is dealing with versus what we are in georgia. In many ways a lot different, but we did just talk about the president s plan, how that applies to entire states, where people were in the process. I think you will see in other states that may have already done this, dart taking some actions here today are in the next few days, i dont know specific what they are going to say, if i did i would not tell you anyway. I feel like it is up to the governors to finalize their plans and roll it out. They feel like we are moving in the right direction down here, and i think everyone is thankful that we have up and dealing with a lot of big otspots. Certainly heavy albany situation certainly had the albany situation which consumed a lot of our resources and ime. It is a lot different than new york, new jersey, chicago. I think it will continue to see the governors take measured steps, they understand the plan that the president put out there. They are on all these calls like i am, and we understand the guidance. I am appreciative of the president s plan and the thought that went into it, the Vice President and task force and what dr. Birx and dr. Fauci have laid out. It gives us a good path to follow, and that is exactly what we are doing with this measured approach. Thank you again for your time today. With your decision today to begin reopening the state, are you Still Holding steadfast in your decision to keep schools close . Or would you maybe reconsider that . Gov. Kemp for the remainder of this year . Yes, absolutely. Hat is a decision that i had in conjunction with a lot of educational leaders. They kept telling me look, if we get past a certain point, it is not going to be worth bringing us back. Is going to take too much to try and ramp back up, get everybody back in. Get the kids acclimated. They told me if it gets too far out, go ahead and call it, and continue to focus on distance learning. Just owned that and do the best we can. Ont pull the rug out from under us, and let us continue to work on next year. No i will not be going on back on that decision. You anticipate Contact Tracing or monitoring through an app becoming a requirement s a condition for future sporting event or concerts . Gov. Kemp i would not want to speak to the specifics of hat. Were going to continue to follow the data to see about those types of venues and events when we get to them and start moving into other hases. How we deal what that, i think will be something we continue to do in conjunction with our health care officials, and people that have the ability to do that. I do think youre going to see the private sector start doing a lot of these innovative things, whether it is putting the infrared heat seeking temperature gauges, detectors when you walk through a certain establishment. To make sure that you are not letting someone enter that may have a fever, whether it is the workplace or a restaurant, or a movie theater, whatever the case may be. I think there is going to be a new norm until we get a vaccine or a treatment for this, but i think our citizens understand that. Exactly how we go about doing that, i would not want to speculate on that right now. I do think it is important for people if they start getting the symptoms, they should ownload the au app and talk to a physician that can give them guidance on whether they need to be tested or not. That is a very powerful tool, i think i would do that too. Many of the businesses you are allowing to reopen on friday are puts together with people who are independent contractors. Many of them have applied for Unemployment Benefits but have not been able to get them yet. Hat effect might reopening those industries have on their ability to get benefits . Gov. Kemp that question would be better answered by our label commissioner mark butler. They are the ones getting federal guidance on that, we are trying to get them back to work. I would not want to try and speculate on that. I think the press conference before last that i had spoken to the Vice President about getting secretary scalia to send that guidance. It is my understanding that a lot has been done. Those claims are now being processed, i believe that they would still be eligible for hat. Obviously if they go back to ork, that will change the. For which they may be eligible. I would refer you to the ommissioner. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, we talk about the coronavirus pandemic and Domestic Violence ywca u. S. A. Over and the need for additional federal assistance with new york executive and cbs crornte cold front on the do you meanry about the pandemic on u. S. Soil. Live at 7 00 eastern. Tuesday morning. Join the discussion. Next, a look at the Coronavirus Response in vermont with republican governor phil scott briefing the governor was asked about Testing Capacity, unemployment claims and the states phased approach to reopening the local economy. Gov. Scott good morning, veryone. Will give some opening remarks and an update on where we are in the state with regards to health