In nearby Cherokee County, 12 students and two staff members from a dozen schools tested positive for the virus in the first week back in school. The Cherokee County School System reported that more than 250 students with potential exposure were sent home for quarantine two weeks.
Cherokee County also attracted attention because of online photos. Thousands of students at two of their high schools teamed up for first-day-of-school senior photos. No one wore masks.
Georgia’s hospital performance for COVID-19 is down, and “we see the curve flat on new cases,” Kemp said at the news conference. He also announced that a new test site had recently opened near Atlanta’s airport.
“Like I said before, we have come a long way, but we are not out of the woods yet and we cannot take our foot off the gas,” he added.
Kemp and U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams both said Georgians can expect to see newly reported cases as schools and businesses reopen.
“I want the people of Georgia to know that we do not have to wait until we get a vaccine, we do not have to hide until we get a miracle therapeutic,” Adams said.
