ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday afternoon that all Georgians can get tested for coronavirus if they want, even if they’re showing no symptoms of the virus.
This comes as every county in the state is now reporting confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Kemp focused the news conference primarily on the increase in testing he’s seen across the state, doubling, he said, to 217,000 tests.
“As you all know, these are unprecedented times,” Kemp said. "I'm proud to report that we are seeing record highs in testing.”
He encourages all Georgians, whether symptomatic of COVID-19 or not, to go and get tested.
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“Right now, we have more than 60 testing sites with more supply than demand,” Kemp said.
He also talked about efforts to form a new task force among community leaders in Gainesville to slow the spread of the hot spot there.
Kemp also reiterated that if the numbers start going back up drastically, he’ll consider shutting the state down again.
“If we see the numbers turn in a different direction than we like to see, then we’ll take further action,” Kemp said.
The Democratic Party of Georgia took to social networking to express their anger over the way the state has handled the pandemic, especially within the African American community, which has a higher percentage of confirmed cases than their percentage of the total population of Georgia.
“Our people are most likely to have underlying health problems that we know make this disease worse. And we’re most likely to work in industries with the greater risk of exposure like health care workers, like care workers in nursing homes,” said Kim Schofield, with the Democratic Party of Georgia.
Kemp said now is a time to come together as Georgians to make sure cases everyone stays healthy.
"We may not agree on certain policies or belong to the same political party, but we all want the same things: a state where families are healthy, businesses are thriving, communities are flourishing and people are optimistic about tomorrow,” Kemp said. “We want a Georgia where your ZIP code doesn’t define your potential, where opportunity exists for all hardworking Georgians. Now, more than ever, we need to put our differences aside and put Georgians first.”
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