Kemp’s Already-Lax Public Health Rules Set To Expire As Coronavirus Surges In Georgia

As Georgia Republicans crowd to celebrate the failure-in-chief Donald Trump in Atlanta today, Brian Kemp hasn’t confirmed whether he’ll let Georgia’s already relaxed coronavirus restrictions expire today — despite new record surges and over 3,000 coronavirus deaths.

In the four months since Kemp’s original public health order, Georgia’s handling of coronavirus has gone from badly inept to dangerously reckless — and Kemp has said he has “no plans” to make doctor-recommended public health orders like a statewide mask order, as local leaders have called for, and even Texas and Alabama have done.

Now, as Kemp’s deadline approaches, nearly 130,000 Georgians have contracted the virus, over 14,102 have been hospitalized, and 3,091 have died as the numbers continue to spike.

“Public health experts, local leaders, and Georgians are begging Kemp to do the right thing and protect our people, but with lives on the line he refuses to enact the expert-backed public health guidelines that will save lives,” said Maggie Chambers, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “Instead of taking action before the deadline expires, he’s glad-handing with Donald Trump, possibly the only other politician in this country who’s a bigger failure than Kemp is in this time of crisis.”

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