UPDATE: 5:30 p.m.
Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday extended the statewide shelter-in-place order through April 30 as Georgia tries to slow the spread of the Coronavirus.
He also banned vacation rentals, and he said he would call up 1,000 more National Guardsmen to help.
ORIGINAL STORY:
Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday he won’t shut down state parks and beaches over the coronavirus pandemic despite requests from some local officials, but he said social distancing requirements would be more stringently enforced.
Twelve Northeast Georgia county commission chairmen had asked Kemp earlier this week to close state parks because of weekend crowds, which included many people metro Atlanta counties hard hit by the pandemic. (Read the original story here.)
“We’re not opening the parks and beaches for parties and family reunions,” Kemp told WDUN during an interview Wednesday. “It’s for exercise. … People need an outlet, particularly in you have young children at home, if your gym has been closed, which all of them in the state are. People need to exercise, and they need somewhere to go to do that in a safe way.”
Kemp said officers in the parks will enforce social distancing and will stop allowed people to enter the parks when parking lots get full. He said he gets reports from the parks and beaches two or three times a day.
“People have been doing what we ask,” Kemp said. “We’ve got additional signage going up this up that we think will help. We’ll be monitoring the parks and the parking lots. When the parking lots get full, no one else is getting in. It’ll be one in and one out.”
The letter from the Northeast Georgia commissioners urged Kemp to close the state parks to keep influx of out-of-towners from entering counties that are otherwise shut down.
“Our communities simply do not have enough hospital beds or medical personnel to care for the inflated population,” Habersham Chairman Stacy Hall said. “Similarly, there is not enough food, dry goods, fuel and other supplies to adequately provide for the numbers we are experiencing.”
The requests echo similar pleas from beach communities like Tybee Island and Jekyll Islands. Local authorities on the coast had closed beaches before Kemp issued his statewide shelter-in-place order. But his order overrode local restrictions and the beaches were reopened.
“I appreciate that all the local government leaders are doing,” Kemp said. “It’s a tough call on all these things. Everyone is doing like I’m doing, trying to do our best to keep our communities safe and flatten the curve and lessen the spread.”
But Kemp said he wouldn’t rule out closing the beaches and parks if people don’t follow the rules.
“Most Georgia have bene great about heeding those warnings and doing what we’re asking,” Kemp said. “And if it gets to be where that’s not the case, we’ll look at shutting those down. That’s certainly an option for me.”
