Bars and nightclubs, which particularly are prevalent in Atlanta, have reopened.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp issued another Executive Order on Tuesday, May 12, telling reporters that the state is “in a good place.” Many restrictions he put in place to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic are being eased, he said.
Georgia Opens Bars And Nightclubs
He also took steps to enable state workers to return to work as well as some summer camps to begin planning.
“With Executive Order 05.12.20.02, live performance venues, bars, nightclubs, and operators of amusement park rides must remain closed through May 31,” Kemp said. “It will enhance health outcomes and give us the opportunity to prepare for safe reopening in the near future.”
“In Georgia, COVID-19 hospitalizations, ventilator use, and the percentage of positive cases continue to drop. However, we remain vigilant in the fight against this dangerous virus,” he tweeted Wednesday morning.
Read Kemp’s Executive Order In Full Here
Kemp’s biggest critic is the mayor of the Georgia’s largest city, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has been appearing on national and local media outlets cautioning residents against returning to normal too soon.
“We’ve got to continue to follow the science,” she says. “I would just say that for those who don’t need to go out and don’t need to resume their daily lives, that we just still need to be thoughtful and continue to stay at home.”
“My approach has been to move into a second phase of how I’m speaking to our citizens and that is to ‘Please stay home and if you can’t stay home, then please be careful.”
"My concern in our state in and in our city is that we've gone back to normal, and there's nothing normal about where we are with #COVID19." – Mayor @KeishaBottoms pic.twitter.com/jxPSNIz3At
— City of Atlanta, GA (@CityofAtlanta) May 12, 2020
Her message has remained consistent throughout the pandemic: Stay home, stay safe.
“Nothing about this virus has changed,” she says, “It is the same virus that sent us to our homes in March and if we aren’t careful it’s going to take us even longer to get back to some sense of normalcy if we aren’t thoughtful on how we’re doing it,” she told CNN.
To that end, Atlanta has launched a number of health, wellness and food initiatives to take care of its citizens.
Atlantafi.com is bringing you the latest on the coronavirus pandemic, which has the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta under a state of emergency. More definitive advice on health, please visit CDC.gov. Here are some helpful links:
