gov. kemp: good afternoon, everyone. let me thank you guys for being here. i certainly want to thank the general who was with us today. homer bryson. last -- to my left. and behind the cameras. we appreciate all that they have been doing with these many press conferences we have had. before i get started i want to thank the faith leaders across our state and the many georgians that which is a painted in our day of prayer. this went well and certainly appreciate that. in our fight debated against covid-19 we let -- we must continue to pray for health care workforce, our front care -- frontline workers and law enforcement nfl the -- fellow georgians. casestoday we had 23,773 2 fatalities and we continue to keep those folks as well as their families and communities in our thoughts and prayers. ,169ave given a total of 127 tests and through the leadership of the public health department, the national guard, our gustaership with au university, walmart, walgreens and others are testing numbers are quickly increasing but we realize we have to continue to do more. as of this morning, georgia ranks 13th among states in territories in the total number for per capita testing we are now 36 overall. in less than one week, georgia has moved from 42nd in testing to 36. but we still have work to do and we will continue to keep fighting to improve testing access as well as capacity. beginning, we have launched a coronavirus task force, and held our first press conference. we promise to lead with transparency and provide regular updates as we all fight this virus together. the department of public health has worked tirelessly to integrate information for testing, hospitalizations and transmission to keep the public informed. we realize that the team we can provide a more unified user-friendly platform for georgians in every corner of the state. earlier today, we unveiled the new covid-19 dashboard. it offers interactive reports that track emerging indicators, gross, rates of growth and outcomes of the covid-19 interventions. geo mapping supporter efforts to address hotspots. the dashboard also allows decision-makers to evaluate to identifynarios vulnerable populations such as health care workers, the medically fragile, and communities with at risk populations. this data is prevented -- presented in multiple formats including an interactive maps consumers can- see key statistics such as the incident rate for 100 thousand people in a county's population. additionally charge and statistics display demographic information for individuals who have tested positive for covid-19. information will be updated hourly, but the total number of tests will continue to be updated twice a day. the new dashboard is accessible through the same website address but the format is easier to use. have said many times, the expansion of testing is key in our fight against covid-19. has workedthe state closely with private labs and local health department to address the need for more testing and ramp up capacity in every region of our state. withverage partnerships cvs, walmart in walgreens and open more testing sites. last week we launched our new augustaship with university for free statewide screening and testing by leveraging the power of telemedicine. since then the university health 9 screeningsd 205 with its clinicians and referred 473% fornded george's covid-19 testing -- or 73% for covid-19 testing. we have the test, we have the physicians, we have the site and we have the bandwidth. what we need now is more georgians to participate. right now all symptomatic georgians can take advantage of this resource. i am calling on anyone who is experiencing symptoms, consistent with covid-19 to take us up on this offer. according to the center for disease control, the following symptoms are consistent with coronavirus infection. to to 14 daysr after exposure. they are fever, cough, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing. headache,scle pain, sore to get a free screening by augusta university health system, a doctor there, please visit augustahealth.org or download the a.u. health express care app on your smart phone or call this number, which we've given before, which is 706-721-1852. 706-721-1852. if you meet the criteria for testing, staff will contact you to schedule a test at one of the state's designated locations near your home. from there, we will leverage the power of several key academic institutions in the state to process tests, including augusta university, georgia state university and the georgia public health lab. in roughly 72 hours, you will be able to access your test results via secure payment portal and a medical provider will contact you directly if you are positive. since the start of the public health emergency, local public health test sites across georgia have collected more than 32,000 specimens for testing. last week alone, by aggressively pushing for more testing, local departments collected 12,086 specimens for testing, a 64% increase from the previous week. georgia's public health departments now have 49 test sites open across our state. yesterday, we also announced a partnership with walmart, etrue north and state and local officials to set up drive-thru sites in communities with limited testing access. beginning today, a mobile testing unit will now serve augusta, millageville, tipton and surrounding regions on a rotating basis. this unit will test georgians with symptoms of covid-19 and healthcare providers and first responders can be tested, whether they have symptoms or if they do not. georgians can make an appointment at www.doineedacovid19test.com. again, www.doineedacovid19test.com. and on site scheduling will also be available. we are grateful to walmart, etrue north and community leaders for their help to get this operation up and running. to prepare for patient surge, our hospitals have worked around the clock to identify hundreds more general use and critical care beds for covid-19 treatment. hospitals were able to identify hundreds more and as of this morning, we have 1,023 critical care beds available for patients across our state. it is the highest number of critical care beds that we've had available since hospitals began tracking this data. ventilator use has also declined over the past few weeks. there are roughly 1,000 ventilators in use across georgia with more than 1,800 ventilators available for a total capacity of 2,800. currently, there are nine recovering covid-19 patients at the alternative care facility at the georgia world congress center. they were transferred from grady, emery and well star to open acute care hospital beds for incoming patients. we continue to coordinate with our hospitals to monitor capacity and if needed to accept non-critical or nonintensive care patients. in southwest georgia as you know, we've partnered with local leaders to build out phoebe north and albany for use by nearby phoebe putney memorial hospital. of the 12 icu rooms completed on april the 20th, 10 are currently occupied. and out of 30 general patient rooms that we have built, 19 are currently occupied. by april 29th, we expect to have an additional 29 rooms with a minimum of 15 new icu rooms. although we are seeing declining transmission in the community, we will continue to identify opportunities for expanded access to ensure that locals have what they need to fight this virus. as i have mentioned previously, the state purchased four temporary hospital units to deploy to albany, rome, macon and gainesville. by may 6th, we will complete installation of units at phoebe, putney memorial hospital in albany, floyd medical center in roan and navsent health in macon. phoebe putney hospital bill gain 24 hospital bleeds. -- beds. floyd medical center in rome will gain six critical care beds and 14 general hospital beds, and nav in macon will gain seven critical care beds and 17 general hospital beds. by may 14th, when installation of the fourth unit is complete, northeast georgia medical center in gainesville will gain 10 critical care beds and 10 general hospital beds. as you know across the nation, the coronavirus has had a devastating impact on long-term care facilities, putting vulnerable populations at risk and causing alarm among public health officials, healthcare professionals, and our families. georgia's battle with covid-19 in these facilities continues to wage on and we are fighting it literally with everything in our power to keep the medically fragile and elderly out of harm's way. as you know, on april the eighth, i signed an order mandating strict sanitation protocols and changes in existing living arrangements, including a ban on visitors, except for end of life circumstances, to stop the spread and improve conditions. the department of community of health has been working day and night to check for compliance and hold facilities accountable. surveyors are contacting facilities daily to ensure they're utilizing appropriate resources to safeguard residents as well as staff. the department is also publishing reports every monday through friday to show covid-19 cases and fatalities in license facilities, giving families the transparency that they deserve to protect their loved ones. the department has also launched a temporary nurse aide training program to address staffing problems in long-term care. this program was established with the assistance from the georgia healthcare association and allied health solutions to provide quick onboarding for nurse's aides needed to care for residents during this emergency period. i commend commissioner frank berry and his team for developing the resources for our georgia families. for weeks now, my team has worked closely with the trump administration and our federal counterparts to mitigate the impact of this virus in georgia. our decisions and directives are informed by data and public health recommendations. and we remain focused on protecting the lives and the livelihoods of all georgians. to slow the spread of covid-19 and prepare for hospital surge capacity, we ask georgians to shelter in place and close specific businesses throughout our state. most businesses remain open with restrictions to ensure community health and wellbeing. we were successful in our efforts to protect georgians as well as our state's healthcare infrastructure. with favorable data and approval from health officials, we looked -- we took a measured step forward by opening many shuttered businesses throughout georgia center limited operations. and starting today, theaters may reopen and restaurants and dining rooms, including those at private social clubs which are allowed to resume, dine-in services if they meet certain mandated criteria that will help continue to prevent the spread of covid-19. bars, night clubs, operators of amusement park rides and live performance venues will remain closed, and the shelter in place order remains, in effect, through april the 30th, 2020. medically fragile and elderly georgians must continue to shelter in place until at least may the 13th and as we assess the situation, we will continue to provide updates. i would like to ask all georgians to help us double down on protecting our fellow vulnerable citizens. as you know, this disease has a wicked effect on these individuals and we've got to continue to raise awareness and take care of those folks and continue to combat the issues that we're seeing in the long-term care facilities. over the weekend, the department of public safety was on call to respond to complaints regarding compliance with the executive orders for specific businesses that were reopening. on saturday, none of our nine georgia state patrol command centers reported any sustained complaints of noncompliance. on sunday, the georgia state patrol received 12 calls with only two sustained complaints, both of which involved large gatherings. officers used these opportunities to raise awareness about social distancing rules, as they have been doing for weeks now across our state, and i'm proud to say that both groups voluntarily dispersed. georgians have been heeding the advice of our public health officials and our law enforcement to ensure the health and wellbeing of customers and workers. but we will continue to monitor compliance in every region of the state. and before i move on, i want to take a few minutes to thank all those in our law enforcement community for their work through this pandemic. like our healthcare workers, they have worked long hours to keep our citizens safe in every zip code, and we appreciate their sacrifices. i hope you all will continue to keep them in your thoughts and prayers as well as those that are supporting them while they're away from home. and please pray for the loved ones of fallen smyrna police officer christopher ewing who lost his life in the line of duty just a few days ago. he was certainly beloved by his community and he will be missed by them and us. working with the georgia hispanic chamber of commerce president and ceo santiago marquez who serves on our outreach community and insurance commissioner john king, we are strengthening efforts to inform georgia's latino community about the risks of covid-19. partnering with the mexican consulate, general king and mr. marquez, we will continue to actively engage communities across the our state starting in hall community. as other areas of our states have seen reduced transmissions of the virus, the gainesville area has experienced an increase in cases and our hospital partners in the area are seeing more hospitalizations. general king is on the ground there today speaking with leaders in the poultry industry to ensure that their workers understand the public health guidance and that we continue to work together to stop the spread. under the leadership of general cardon, the georgia national guard as you know has worked tirelessly to assist emergency response efforts across our state. currently there are 3,145 soldiers, airmen, and state defense force personnel engaged in the covid-19 response with infection control teams, medicalling support teams, food bank support, school lunch delivery, and general support teams as needs arise. right now there are 978 personnel working in 69 infection control teams, assigned to decontaminate georgia's 790 long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, assisted living facilities, personal care homes, community living arrangements, hospice and similar facilities. to date, these dedicated teams have provided critical support by sanitizing the facility and training staff on enhanced infection control protocols to 710 facilities, which is 90% of georgia's long-term care facilities, with some that have received multiple visits. given the heightened risk of adverse consequences for the medically fragile and elderly, this work by the guard is truly life saving. their efforts have been highlighted by the trump administration as well as national, state, and local media and they have started to train other states on their practices. their hard work, as you know, does not stop here. right now, the guard has 206 personnel in 20 medical support teams deployed to 20 hospitals in georgia. lending a helping hand to our healthcare workforce and necessary medical care to our patients. they have 190 personnel and seven hospital entry support teams which are deployed to conduct patient arrival screening at healthcare facilities. 170 soldiers are supporting eight food banks, loading and unloading shipments and packaging containers for distribution and at the atlanta community food bank, supporting the movement of 6 million pounds of food, the equivalent of 5 million meals. there are over 55 service members helping with school lunch deliveries, supporting the delivery of over 137,000 meals to students, just in fulton county alone. soldiers are also providing support to the department of public health with drivers and couriers at 13 of their 18 regional health offices. logistics support at their warehouse and reinforcements at the test sites. the guard is supporting walmart's mobile testing initiative in richmond county today and will support them in millageville and titton in the coming days. personnel are providing reinforcement at nine specimen collection sites in conjunction with augusta university covering albany, moletry, decatur, forsythe, two sites in atlanta, ken saw, morrow and sparta. as i mentioned last week, the guard has galvanized 10 mobile strike teams for test specimen collection, focusing on nursing homes, first responders, law enforcement, and mental health facilities across our state. they are also supporting our partnership with augusta university at their command center, with 49 personnel. i want to applaud the brave men and women who have answered this call to service, who are fighting the virus with every fiber of their being. speaking of local heroes, we have a great resource for our front line healthcare workers. i don't think there's any doubt that they are our heroes of today. the battle -- i'm sorry, the decontainment system is a self-contained device that uses vapor, hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate n95 masks. this is a big piece of equipment. it consists of eight 20-foot shipping containers and starting today, it can decontaminate 80,000 n95 masks per day. 80,000 masks per day. each mask can also be decontaminated up to 20 times. this system will give us the ability to recycle critical supplies and it is currently available to all medical facilities. long-term care facilities, as well as first responders. i want to encourage these facilities and others to reach out to gima and take advantage of this resource as they continue to work on the front lines of our fight with covid-19. over the last several days, many have written about georgia's plan to slowly reopen the businesses shuttered by our shelter in place order and many more have written about the president's insight and advice on our game plan. rest assured, the president and i share a common goal and that is to protect both the lives and the livelihoods of georgians as well as the american people. we had another great call today with the president, the vice president, members of the administration, the national task force, and the nation's governors. i want to continue to applaud the president's leadership during these difficult times and we are grateful for the resources that they are providing as we work to keep georgians safe and ensure a bright and promising future in every corner of our state. and while it is easy to get discouraged or lost in a lot of noise, i have found inspiration and encouragement from small business owners who are able to safely open their doors and serve their customers in their city or their town. i know this situation can test your patient as well as your -- patience as well as your faith. but please know that we stand behind you. over the weekend, i also heard from doctors in our state, concerned about patient health and wellbeing. given the shelter in place order and the need to social distance, many with chronic disease or medical needs have avoided the doctor's office or the pharmacy. if you have a medical need, please take advantage of telehealth opportunities that many doctors have embraced during this pandemic. at the very least, please call your physician and check in and see if it is a good time to schedule your appointment. make the necessary arrangements today to ensure a healthy tomorrow. i want to close today with a call for a renewed unity. these are unprecedented times in our state and our nation, but we are making great progress. we have accomplished much, but there is still a long way to go. there are differing opinions on how best to tackle the covid-19 virus and how we reopen parts of our economy. the path forward to ensure a safer, stronger, and more prosperous future for our state. but i can promise you this. there is more that unites us than divides us. we all want to protect our families and our neighbors. we all want to emerge from this pandemic safe and victorious, so please stand with us in the days, weeks, and months ahead. encourage your loved ones and your friends to continue to follow the executive orders and the social distancing guidance. find a way to support your local business and take care of those neighbors that are in need. use social media to share important updates and highlight the many good things that we have going on around us. and i would ask all georgians to do as i do every day and to do as we did earlier today in this same georgia state capitol, and that is to pray. to pray for the state's health leaders who are helping us chart the course forward, to pray for those who are on the front lines of our healthcare facilities, our first responders, and many others as well as those that are supporting them while they are working long hours away from home. pray for all our elected officials, from the president, state officials, to local officials who are doing what is right. to help the people of this country and this state. i urge you to continue to follow the guidelines and especially, especially, let's continue to take care of the most vulnerable to this evil disease and if we do, i am confident that together, we will defeat the coronavirus and our best days will remain ahead. on that, we'll wake some questions. -- take some questions. reporter: thank you so much. sir, you questioned about the decision to reopen. you mentioned president trump. twice last week, the president criticized the decision, said it was too soon, as have a number of governors or mayors across the state. and the state doesn't meet the white house threshold for a recommended two-week decline in cases. gov. kemp: was that a question or an opinion? reporter: nope, that's a question. gov. kemp: you just made a statement, you didn't ask a question. what's your question? reporter: getting to the question right now, sir. thank you so much. for those who say that the move came prematurely, that this came too soon, can you tell us specifically what data you used to determine that this was the safest choice? gov. kemp: well, i know it may be hard for nbc news to understand this, but all the data is publicly available on the public health department's website. as i've said before, i made those decisions in conjunction with dr. toomey and many, many other people following the data and there's a lot of data that we're following. i mentioned a lot of it today about a ramp up in testing we're doing. about our hospital bed capacity. just today, i got a text from a hospital ceo in the metro atlanta area that had 11 hospitals. they have 171 covid patients today in 11 hospitals. that is down from 260 positive cases which was their high. that was back on march the 31st. so you know, we're moving forward with data and information and decisions from the local public health officials, meeting and working within the guidelines of the great plan that the president has laid out and you are seeing many other governors do that, as well. and i just want to tell you, i appreciate what the president's doing. you know, he said it best today. the media wants to continue to divide us during this period but let me assure you, there will be no dividing. we're going to continue to work with the administration and the president and the vice president and the task force and he said today, i wish the media could just see how good these calls go with the governors, about what they're talking about doing with testing, about how three weeks ago, everybody's having a fit over ventilators, and now nobody even brings it up and here in the state of georgia, we got as many ventilators available today for georgia patients and i hope we don't need them. reporter: but sir if i could follow up specifically, what numbers on the health department website -- gov. kemp: i'll get my press team -- we're glad to share all the numbers and the data that we have available that supports the decision. if dr. toomey wants to, she can come answer that question, as well. reporter: could i ask dr. toomey about the numbers? thank you. doctor, thank you. dr. toomey: i'm kathleen toomey, commissioner of public health. we've been monitoring these data very closely. we have not only just been tracking cases but also actually doing -- calculating what i call the birx criteria with respect to dr. birx who i know very well. and we didn't meet the full gating criteria -- we met several of them and we're approaching a plateauing, which made us feel that it would be safe to move forward because we had three things in place. we had adequate hospital capacity and had really augmented that considerably. we have adequate testing capacity and i urge people who are listening to this press conference today, please go get tested. we've expanded the criteria. virtually anyone with any of these even relatively mild symptoms like headache and muscle pain and other more traditional symptoms like cough and fever can come into any of our public health sites after calling ahead, the health department, to get an appointment. easy to get tested. we have plenty of testing capacity. and we are ramping up our contact tracing capacity. we've been doing contact tracing all along. we have now been working very aggressively on that. a google app that will help us track that and we'll be rolling that out probably later in the week in a pilot and statewide next week. with all these things in place and undergoing as well as what appears to be a plateauing of cases and meeting many of the gating criteria, we thought it was safe to move forward with other considerations that we looked at, as well. the governor is looking at many things, not just the data we have and i respect his right to do that and i will work very hard to ensure that georgians are protected and safe throughout this process. reporter: if i could ask a follow-up. reporter: governor kemp, following up on the data, i know you've said how many times how important that is to you in making your decisions. last week, late last week, georgia tech researchers released a model based on the data that they interpret from the state of georgia that if georgia reopens the way that we're opening right now across the state, there could be in july and august a second recurrence, another round of infections. what models do you see and what do those models show you in the next few months? gov. kemp: well, i think people need to understand that i have the same view that general carden does, when i put him working with the doctor on testing to move the needle as i just talked about, we've done that considerably. and he knows that i want him to continue to do that. but he said look, all models are wrong. but they're useful and you have to follow them. but you know whenever you take a step, your model changes. it's almost like you get punished for taking a step depending on what model you're looking at. so we're not just relying on one model. we're relying on dr. toomey, what her team is seeing on the ground every day. i can't tell you how many hospitals ceos i've talked to this week. if you look at our numbers, if you start taking out hot spots we've had, albany, georgia, has had more deaths to coronavirus than atlanta. you would never get anybody to bet on that in a million years when this first started. but they had a super spreader issue that created an epicenter because of a big funeral. long time ago, before the public was educated and we know what we know now about the virus. i called back down there this weekend, they have hospital bed capacity at phoebe. they're not out of the woods yet, but their folks have learned a lot. most of them are doing the right thing. we're going to continue to build out the bed capacity so if we have other issues at places in south georgia because in many rural parts of the state we have small hospitals so it doesn't take long, especially with the limited number of icu beds. so we're looking at all of those types of things, but i would just the urge people to go to our graph and our charts that are on the department of public health's website. i looked at those just an hour ago. and see for yourself. it doesn't mean we can just throw the keys back there and let them operate as usual. if you hear about stories of businesses that decided to open this week, i talked about the nonissue it was over the weekend because so many people were compliant. people were excited because they were sending me pictures going, hey, i went to the barber shop, they only let one person in. homer just talked about a story, he got a haircut this weekend, the lady had the door locked. she had to open the door, she temperature checked him. made him use hand sanitizer, he was the only one that came in and when he got done, he went out. she said i've got to work. she goes i was fixing to lose my car. so these are tough decisions, no doubt. but we put measured steps for people that wanted to open, it was not a mandate, there's a lot of people that have decided to wait and i support that 100%. there's a lot of people that want to learn more about at what the guidelines are, and get ready and support that, but you have people out there like peggy who was fixing to lose their car and when people get desperate like that, the doctor and i both know those outcomes are not going to be good. for protecting the public so we're better off in my opinion trusting people because i trust georgians. they're smart people. they're great entrepreneurs. they're hard-working and they're innovative. and it is incredible what they're doing to meet the guidelines. but it's also incredible for the ones that don't feel like they can or they can't make it work. they're taking the responsibility not to open. if we continue to do that, if we continue to socially distance, if we continue to not do -- not have large gatherings or neighborhood parties, then we're going to continue on the path that we are. and we're going to continue to get back to the new normal of moving into phase 2. reporter: to follow up. the shelter in place order expires thursday. what's going to be different friday may 1st across the state? how do you expect people to act and behave? and what should they comply with? gov. kemp: we're going to continue to stay in contact with the white house and the guidance that the cdc has put out. we're going to continue to look at our data. we've had two calls a day with our team over 20 people. every day, seven days a week. we're going to continue to do that so we know what's going on on the ground and see where we are. we're going to be making some decisions most likely in the next couple of days of what the next week, two weeks or month looks like based on that data and i just haven't made those decisions yet. i've talked to dr. toomey quite a bit this weekend about what things look like and what we need to focus on. one thing for sure, the medically fragile, the -- to continue to hunker town on, watch out for and support that industry if they have healthcare workers that go down to the virus who can't come to work. so that is definitely staying in the put. what the rest of it looks like, we'll have a better idea in a day or two. reporter: governor, president trump said he strongly disagreed with your stance and that he told you as much in a phone conversation last week. did he issue you that warning and if he's watching this later today, what do you hope he takes from your message? gov. kemp: i think the president will know something he already knows, is that i appreciate his leadership, i appreciate all that the administration has done to support our state, but we've been lucky in a lot of regards. we haven't had to ask him for a lot of things. they have delivered ppe which we needed. thankfully, i think we got some ventilators from the federal stockpile, but we haven't had a big ask like other states, mainly it was just to have something in our pocket. the state has bought those, as well. we're going to continue to work with them because the president and i believe in the same exact thing. we want to keep our citizens safe and we want to reopen america to entrepreneurship and to business. i mean, he knows like i know, we cannot continue this way economically. we are looking at depression-like unemployment. we are, you know, facing hardships now of trying to feed everybody, which is amazing to even think that you could have a time in our country when six, eight weeks ago, we had the best economy we've ever had in georgia. we had the lowest unemployment rate we've ever had since we started keeping records at 3.1%. we have been the best state for business eight years in a row. and it just all tumbled off a cliff, like it has in every state. but we will come back stronger, only if we stick together, continue to work together, to protect people from the virus, but also take measured steps to reopen the economy and that is what we are doing. reporter: but governor the first part of the question, did he tell you he strongly disagrees with your stance? gov. kemp: i would just refer you to what the president said and then what my response was. it's pretty clear. and, you know, again, i support the president and i'm thankful for all he's doing. he's shown great leadership. i will say this as well. and like the press is never going to write this. but it is unprecedented to see what republican and democratic governors get up there and thank the president for, thank the vice president for, the many members of the task force that are calling the nation's governors working with them every day, just -- and the level of communication that the governors have had with this administration, it's been amazing and i know for me, it is appreciated. reporter: mike dunston with cbs atlanta, cbs 46. you said you agree with the president on how the media is dividing us. what did you mean by that? gov. kemp: well, i think, you know -- i'll give you a good example. so all these stories about our plan to lift business registrations and i'm not singling you out. i'm saying some, were giving us a very hard time, thought it was irresponsible, they wrote how deadly it was and then the follow-up article after i did it, they said it was largely symbolic, didn't really matter because we never really closed that many businesses to start with. well, what is the public supposed to think? i mean, you're speaking out of both sides of your mouth. and that's what gets so frustrating in this. many news organizations just report the truth, they report the facts, but then you have some, the truth and the facts are one way before you do something, and then it's completely different after. reporter: so shouldn't you just call out those specific organizations, rather than just say the media in general? gov. kemp: well, that's a point that's well taken. reporter: one other question for you. when it comes to reopening things, you talked about bars and night clubs and amusement parks staying closed. i guess another thing is some people have been complaining that why is the governor's office -- why is the governor's mansion not open for tours? do you foresee a time when those will be back open? you kind of mentioned it a little bit before. any ideas on that? gov. kemp: i certainly hope the governor's mansion will be open to tours sooner rather than later, but we're going to continue to follow the guidance that our team is putting together in conjunction with dr. toomey, but the fact of the matter is the people giving the mansion,the governor's the docents, are medically fraggal and very elderly people. i don't think that would be a good idea to put them as well as the trustees that are corrections inmates that work at the capitol as well in an environment where they may test positive and then take it back to a large facility. those are the kinds of things that we're trying to avoid. >> thank you. gov. kemp: thank you. reporter: governor kemp. my question to you is when you made the decision to reopen some of these businesses, lots of people, you know, took to social media, they didn't agree with the decision and they said that this decision puts lives in danger. what do you have to say to that? gov. kemp: well, look, every decision i've made, i've had people criticizing me and people praising me. if i would have made -- if i hadn't reopened businesses, the same thing would have happened. so i have great appreciation for that. people can speak their mind. i know there's a lot of different opinions. i would just say, though, i didn't order anybody to open their business. i didn't order anybody to go patronize any business. i simply gave people the opportunity that literally we're on the verge, many of them, of losing everything that they got. and, you know, i'm thinking about that. like, where are we going to house all of those people if they get kicked out of their apartment? how are we going to get those people to work when we do reopen, if they've had their car repossessed? these are tough decisions. so it wasn't a mandate. it simply gave people the opportunity to reopen and i will tell you i'm very proud of those small business people. there's people that's been thinking about this for weeks on how they were going to be open. just waiting for this day and from what i saw over the weekend, i mean, look, i know the media was going to be out there friday morning and they were. they were out there at barber shops at 7:00 a.m., friday morning because i had people calling and telling me. and like we had no bad news friday, because when they went out there, they saw the people doing the proper procedures to protect themselves and to protect their customers, but you also saw people that were out there because the demand was there. i mean, i heard a story about somebody that was cutting hair at a salon and they were bragging at how much people were tipping them, because the people getting that haircut, they knew, they knew these people hadn't gotten a paycheck in a long time. and they knew these people probably hadn't gotten any kind of unemployment check yet. and that is what our citizens have the opportunity to do. they don't have to do it. but they have the opportunity. reporter: i do have a follow-up to that. were you surprised by the number of businesses that stayed closed, that were allowed to open? gov. kemp: no, i was not. and i want to thank those, folks. if they don't think it's the right time, they don't need to open. if they can weather the storm, they don't need to open, but i think the good example is the restaurant industry that's opening today. i have a friend of mine that opened and he -- he called me, he texted me and he said thank you for giving us the opportunity. we had a very light day. he said what people don't realize, it's going to take us a while to build this back up. so i don't think you're going to see -- there may be some places where you see a crowd and, you know, lines forming and waiting, but you're seeing that for some take-out, right? so this is unchartered territory. we had never done this before. but we also have people on the verge of losing everything and when that happens, people do desperate things and if people are doing desperate things in this world that we're in, that's very dangerous for the spread. i would rather ask our people to comply with the -- if you look at these -- if you look at these measures, if you actually read the almost 30-page executive order and the requirements, it's not easy. it's a little expensive. people that are doing it in hair salons and barber shops, i'm sure they need those extra tips because it's costing them more to operate this way. but it is giving them opportunity, because as the president said and as i know as a small business guy for 30 years, there's going to be businesses that we saw before this that we won't see after. and that will take a heavy toll on our local communities as well as our state and i know that first hand. reporter: governor, you mentioned something earlier about the poultry industry. we know georgia is the number 1 poultry producer i believe in the world. what specific steps are being taken to protect that industry? we heard some, i believe from the ceo of tyson foods who's really worried about a break in the supply chain because of outbreaks at some of his plants and other parts of the country. you said that general king was going there. have there been any issues in any of these plants and what specific steps is the state taking to try to stop them? gov. kemp: i'm going to let general -- let me just answer you there first, general richard. it is concerning. i've followed the stories across other meat-packing plants and other businesses across the state. we obviously being the number one poultry producer in the world have many of those businesses in georgia. we've been working with the association. dr. toomey may want to speak about this as well to help them with best practices, following the guidelines. i think they've done a lot of things in their plant. i think what we're seeing in gainesville and the reason we sent general king up there today is we've got to get the community to buy in to this. that community, they're very hard working. and i've worked with them for almost 40 years. they are going to go to work, unless they just absolutely can't. and that is -- that is -- that is their culture of being very hard working people and this is a time where if they feel like they have a little bit of a cold or one of these seven or eight symptoms that i read out earlier, they probably could get through the day, but it is not smart for them to do that. we've got to, i think, educate them. i don't know that the issue is the plant as much as it is just in the community when you have somebody that's in the community gets infected or somebody in the plant's infected they take it back to the community so that's what we're trying to educate and stop, but i think general cardon may have something on the plant. carden: i've visited one of our specimen points of collection earlier today and had a brief conversation with dr. toomey. we talked to one of the directors in dawson county, the poultry industry is big in that part of the state and we have mobile testing capability that dr. toomey asked us to generate to support the department of public health and obviously, at her behest, we can move that capability whether -- wher it's critical infrastructure workers or whether it's the meat packing industry, wherever the public health leadership tells us to direct that capability, then we're obviously prepared to do so. >> great. thank you. i have to point out that two of my colleagues got a haircut. and i obviously didn't. so this reinforces what the governor said that just because things are open doesn't mean you need to go out. i am heeding warnings, but i'm very proud of the work that we have done in public health, both with the poultry industry as well as blueberry farmers and others in the agricultural industry. our health directors have reached out proactively to work in these factories and to educate about the use of masks, or educate about social distancing in areas where the workers may take breaks. and almost uniformly, they have reported back to me that they are so impressed with how well these guidelines are being followed when they do have a positive case, the cases are quickly identified, often tested either by public health or as general carden said by one of his mobile teams. we help identify sites for isolation and potential quarantine from others, but the fact that they were very open to following guidelines and very open to this education in a proactive way i think speaks volumes about how well we have been proactively reaching out to ensure the safety of the workers, but also for the state as a whole. reporter: governor, in your remarks earlier, you encouraged more people to come forward for testing. do we have unused capacity for testing at this point? what is our daily testing capacity today? gov. kemp: i may let general king and dr. toomey answer that too, but just from a big picture perspective, that was something that i've learned in the last really 24 hours, because we have been pushing so hard. general carden's order was to use every test we have every day. and basically, just break the system if you could, and then we would figure out how we get more tests to give because we, as i said -- two weeks ago i think it was, certainly 10 days ago, we had to do a better job with our testing and, as you can see, from the numbers, we are now doing that. but just before -- well, i guess it was twice today -- i guess it was the afternoon call. i mean, general carden talked about this, but we had one test site and we only had like 15 people show up. so we're going to try some different things to make the public more aware, but i think we're also -- and i've talked to dr. toomey about this as well this afternoon about whether we need to start targeting things, but i'll let both of them speak to that, but that is true. georgians, if you're feeling bad, if you have those symptoms that i went over, body pain, cough, fever, you know, all those seven or eight new criteria that's out, you need to -- you need to go and get the a.u. app or their website or call that number and let us find you a location close to where you are so you can go get tested. that is what we need people to do. but we have got availability and testing now and general, do you want to speak to that a little bit? carden: thank you, governor. i'll just give you some on the ground feedback from having visited three of our sites today that we stood up at the behest of the department of health, specifically dr. toomey asked us to put these up and support local officials. i first went to dawsonville. and we had plenty of capacity there. at the point when i was there this morning, i think we tested less than 20. i went from there to our decatur national guard armory. plenty of unleveraged capacity the first day it was advertised, we had about 84 people come by and get a test and it's dwindled since that point. and i finished up just across the street over here at georgia state university in the parking lot and we had 14 people that had scheduled appointments. we had three walkups. lots of unleveraged capacity. so certainly appreciate any opportunity to make sure the public understands that we have capacity and we want to make sure to follow the orders of those that have asked us to increase testing. we're looking for customers. we want to help very much. reporter: and can either of you or dr. toomey speak to what the ceiling capacity might be right now? dr. toomey: well, right now, we are hoping to do thousands and thousands of tests in the next two weeks. i mean, that's our goal, between general carden's team and our own team. public health has ramped up considerably. rockdale newton is planning a testing campaign right now and we'll have -- already 1,200 people scheduled for the -- for the horse park in rockdale. i mean, we are -- we have the capacity. you can make appointments by calling the health departments. we have additional test kits and have lab capacity, and i think that word has not gotten out that we have expanded criteria much more broadly as well as the asymptomatic healthcare workers and the first responders and others who may be at risk and those in the nursing home working in nursing homes and so we hope that we can encourage people to be tested. this will give us the best opportunity to prevent spread of the disease by identifying cases as early as possible. and so i can't -- i can't -- i think i can't say more about the importance of getting the word out, go onto the website of the health department, our own health department website which has the numbers you can call as well as our a.u. and i think we will be seeing in the next week a media campaign just trying to advertise how much capacity we do have. please get tested. now is the time. we have the availability. we want to provide this opportunity to everyone who wants a test in georgia and has even mild symptoms. and so it's quite a change from when we first started, we were restricted, only the most severe symptoms and even hospitalized patients. gov. kemp: one thing i would add there, too, on our call today with the president and vice president and dr. birx was going over some testing things that they gave us. they had one graph, too, that showed the volume of the private sector testing that's going on in the private labs so there's a lot of capacity there. there was a point made, i think it was two of those calls ago where, because the states were doing more, it was opening up more and more capacity at the private labs. they were speeding up. if you remember, you know, weeks ago, it was taking five to eight days to get those tests back and i think that is speeding up, and then they have a lot of availability in the private labs, too, which is a good thing. reporter: question for dr. toomey. as far as contact tracing goes, has the state done anything like this before? and how involved will the state be? what resources will the state put towards contact tracing? dr. toomey: we've been doing contact tracing for years, for many infectious diseases and have been -- have done it for coronavirus, covid-19, as well early in the epidemic. and so this is not something new. what's new is that we're ramping up the capacity to do it statewide at a level that we didn't have and by the time we fully develop our partnerships over the next several weeks, including partnerships with the university systems and other entities and drawing on our reserve corps as well as hiring new staff, we expect we will have as many as 1,000 people in georgia with our plan working together with us under the direction of state office, but also working under the direction of local public health and we -- as i said, we have been doing this -- this is not something that is new to public health. we've done it for years for other infectious diseases, including tuberculosis or measles, but we did it for coronavirus in -- when we had our first cases, but now, we're really ramping up to a capacity where we can almost immediately when a case is known, identify their contacts and isolate them, the case, quarantine the individuals who may have been exposed and try to prevent further community spread. and we expect to have this capacity statewide. reporter: and are there specific people or specific populations that are being i guess not targeted but looked at specifically with this contact tracing? dr. toomey: everybody. i mean this is something we hope we will have everyone's support for and one of the most important aspects of our plan as we're rolling this out is community engagement and i've talked with the governor about this at some length. the governor's task force for community will be i hope a very important partner to us because communities aren't always open to the whole idea of government workers identifying people and asking them to stay at home. and we learned that lesson in hiv and other stds as well, when we initiated contact tracing measures. so we're hoping to really very aggressively engage communities all over the state of every demographic and also to engage the business community and others who can help us inform about this and the importance of this so that just as you did with social distancing that you also cooperate with us and help us stop the spread. it's going to require community engagement in the same way that social distancing does. reporter: thank you. reporter: governor, on may 13th order on medically fragile, staying in place, what criteria will be used when you make a decision to end that? gov. kemp: on may 13th? reporter: yes. gov. kemp: i think we would have to -- i may let dr. toomey see if she has any ideas on that because i, first of all, will consult with her, but i think we would have to watch the data for two hard weeks to really see that we've made a lot of movement. so if there's still -- i mean, just in my opinion, not having her advice i think, i think if they're -- if there's still community spread out there, even though we're on the down side and going to where it's negligible, that still is a population, you know, that if if that's in that nursing home facility, it is really tough on those people. i mean, it is brutal. and so i'm going to be very, very careful with those individuals. i mean, they are really the ones that need to continue to shelter in place, you know. my mom is a good example. i know it's been frustrating with her. she just lost her husband several weeks ago so she's at home alone and i took her some blueberries sunday, but i didn't go in and see her, because i had been to visit the storm damage folks and it just wasn't worth it. so i left them in the mailbox for her and called her. i mean that is the population that we're going to have to continue to take good care of. maybe even past may 13th. what that looks like, i don't know. but we're going to have to watch the data really close on that one because that is a very, very vulnerable population. thank you, everybody. i represent thousands of georgians who feel the you have opened georgia too soon. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: c-span has round-the-clock coverage of the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. and it is all available on demand at c-span.org/coronavirus. watch white house briefings, updates from governors and state officials, track the spread throughout the u.s. and the world with interactive maps, watch on-demand anytime, unfiltered at c-span.org/coronavirus. sinceevision has changed c-span began 40 years ago. to our mission continues, provide an unfiltered view of government. we have brought you primary election coverage, the impeachment process, and now the federal response to the coronavirus. you can watch all of our programming on television, online, or on our free radio app. the part of the national conversation through our daily programs or through our social media feeds. america's cable television company. brought to you by your television provider. >> during his daily briefing, mayor cuomo -- governor cuomo talked about the states reopening plan, which he says can begin as early as may 15. he also spoke about antibody plansg in the state and to link up state farm's with oversupply to downstate food banks facing shortages. federalcalled on the government to provide financial assistance to the states. albany vivid this is about 40 minutes. -- from albany. this is about 40 minutes. gov. gov. cuomo: big monday crowd. hope you guys had a good weekend. boyfriend is a part of e premises. monday. this is the total hospitalization rate. what you see -- which you see is basically flat.

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