GA Coronavirus: Petition Asks Gov. Kemp To Issue Shelter In Place

GEORGIA — A petition online has garnered more than 70,000 signatures urging Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to issue a shelter-in-place order.

Organizer Nancy Ouyang said she wants Georgia to shut down similar to California, New York, Illinois and other states.

• People must be ordered to stay home except for essential needs.
• Vulnerable populations must stay home.
• Everyone is required stay home except to get food, care for a relative or friend, get necessary health care, or go to an essential job.
• Going outside for walks is allowed, but keep at least 6 feet distance.

"Bars, nightclubs, dine-in restaurants, gyms, all must be closed," Ouyang wrote. "We cannot hesitate. Italy has shown us what happens if we do not take decisive and severe action. Italy surpassed China in number of deaths on Mar. 19, and as of Mar. 24, now has two times as many deaths, in a population that is only 4 percent the size of China. We cannot wait another week to shut down, we must do so now!

"The path of the pandemic is clear. But if we act now instead of in a week, we will save thousands of lives.

"Listen to doctors, stop worrying about government overreach, and start worrying about residents. Urging people to do things is not strong leadership. No employer is going to feel urged to close down, and vulnerable populations are still going to work. Humans are social by nature and won't feel urged to not see friends. Shutting down must be a state-wide requirement."

The economic fallout will be huge: business will fail and people will lose their jobs. But waiting will only make it exponentially worse. We need to learn from the thousands of deaths in China and Italy (and Spain, which had 458 people die on just one day: March 23). We are not somehow different from them and above the force of nature.

I am proud to be a Georgian. But let Georgia be a leader, not a follower. Let us #shutdownGA and work together to overcome this pandemic.

Governor Kemp, please order an immediate shelter-in-place order for Georgia.

During a press conference Monday, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp closed bars and nightclubs, banned groups of more than 10 people, and issued a shelter-in-place order for those who are medically fragile until April 6.

The Georgia Department of Public Health will now be able to close businesses or nonprofits, including churches, that don't follow the new orders.

Kemp said businesses and grocery stores that can maintain a six-foot distance between customers can remain open.

Medically fragile people, including those who have coronavirus, are suspected to have it, people in long-term care facilities or people with suppressed immune systems to shelter-in-place.

Related: What A Stay-At-Home GA Coronavirus Order Could Look Like

On Thursday, Kemp extended the closure of all public schools in Georgia through April 24.

Kemp signed an executive order on Thursday "that mandates public schools will remain closed for in-person instruction through April 24 - students may return on Monday, April 27," Sen. Jen Jordan tweeted.

"Prior to this date, governor will make a decision on the remainder of school year," Jordan said.

See more:

• GA Coronavirus: No Groups Of 10+, Medically Fragile To Isolate
• GA Coronavirus: Gov. Kemp Orders Schools Closed Through April 24
• Is Your Restaurant Open? We Want To Hear From You: GA Coronavirus

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Numbers released at noon Thursday showed an increase of 200 coronavirus cases overnight in Georgia.

As of Thursday afternoon, there are 1,525 cases in Georgia, 473 hospitalized and 48 deaths due to coronavirus, the Georgia Department of Public Health said.

Fulton County has the most cases in the state with 211, followed by Dougherty with 156, DeKalb with 129, Cobb with 115, Bartow with 86, Gwinnett with 75, Carroll with 50, Cherokee with 38, Clayton with 32, Lee with 30, Henry with 25, Clarke with 24, Hall with 21, Douglas with 18, Floyd with 16, Forsyth with 15, Fayette with 14, Coweta, Lowndes and Rockdale with 12 each, Spalding with 11, and Columbia, Mitchell, Newton, Polk, Richmond and Troup with 10 each.

Globally, more than 492,000 people have been infected and more than 22,000 people have died from the new coronavirus, Johns Hopkins reported Thursday afternoon. Of that total, more than 69,000 confirmed cases were in the United States, with more than 1,046 U.S. deaths tied to the virus outbreak.