Atlanta Georgia’s governor, who has opposed local masquerade mandates and even sued Atlanta once in a while, has signed a new executive order allowing local governments to impose masquerade requirements to help fight the coronavirus pandemic.
As with previous assignments, the one issued Saturday says residents and visitors to the state are “strongly encouraged” to wear face masks when they are outside their homes, unless they are outside eating, drinking or exercising. But contrary to previous orders, these local governments in counties that have met a “threshold requirement” allow wearing masks on government property.
A province meets these threshold requirements if it had 100 or more confirmed cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 people in the previous 14 days. Only two of Georgia’s 159 counties were below that threshold, according to data from the state Department of Public Health.
Local mask mandates may not result in fines, fees or penalties against private companies or organizations, and fines against individuals for non-compliance may not exceed $ 50 and may not include jail time, the order says. If people are not in compliance, local authorities should warn them “about the health risks posed by not wearing a face mask or face mask” before issuing a citation.
Local mask requirements cannot be enforced on residential property and can only be enforced on private property, including businesses, if the owner or occupant agrees to enforce, the order says.
“This order also protects Georgia companies from over-government by restricting the application and enforcement of local masking requirements to public ownership,” Kemp said in a news release accompanying the order, which goes into effect through Aug. 31. “While I support local control, it should be well balanced with property rights and personal freedoms.”
In addition, the order extends on-the-spot shelter obligations to people who meet certain criteria that result in “higher risk of serious illness,” including people in nursing homes or long-term care facilities, people with certain chronic health conditions, and those with compromise immune system as well as other underlying health conditions that make them more susceptible to coronavirus.
It also continues to ban meetings larger than 50 people if people are closer than 2 feet (2 meters) apart and sets specific business guidelines for bars, restaurants and other businesses.
Kemp, in Republican, charged last month Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, a Democrat, and the Atlanta City Council after Bottoms made statements that the governor said some interpreted as orders for restaurants to close and order masks. Kemp throws the lawsuit Thursday.
Atlanta was one of a number of cities that issued commissions that had to wear masks, despite Kemp’s arguments that local governments could not impose measures that were more or less restrictive than those in its statewide executive orders.
Georgia reported 3,372 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 96 deaths Saturday. On Sunday, state officials announced 1,873 new confirmed cases and 33 deaths, bringing the state’s total to 237,030 cases and 4,702 deaths.
Also Sunday, officials from Cherokee County School at Creekview High School in Canton said it would stop teaching individuals through Aug. 31, and became the third school in the neighborhood to temporarily suspend in-person learning, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
The move came after 25 students tested positive for COVID-19 and 500 of the 1,800 students taking personal classes at the school were quarantined. The school district says it expects that once pending tests, the number of quarantine students will “significantly increase”, according to the newspaper.
The Creekview closure comes about two weeks after 31,000 students opted for personal tutoring from the classes and followed a transition to online classes only at two other Cherokee County high schools. One of those schools, Etowah High School, made national headlines after a photo showed dozens of maskless students gathered for parent photos on first day.
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