CORONAVIRUS IN GEORGIA: What’s happening today - April 19, 2020

GEORGIA — Here’s a roundup of what’s happening so far today, April 19: (Click here for the previous day)

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[SPECIAL SECTION --> Latest on coronavirus in Georgia and around the world]

Kroger’s Atlanta Division, which includes Georgia, Eastern Alabama and South Carolina, is adding new safety measures to help protect employees, including mandatory facial mask requirements. The company has a supply of surgical masks in stock for associates to use, Kroger said Sunday. Certain stores in the Atlanta Division will also start pilot testing mandatory temperature checks at the start of each shift. The pilot tests will begin once infrared thermometers, which are currently being shipped, arrive in the stores.
Walmart has also announced it will require all its employees to wear face masks.
There are now 18,489 confirmed cases of coronavirus with 689 deaths in Georgia, according to new data released Sunday at 7 p.m. At least 3,489 cases have required hospitalization. This is all according to data from the Georgia Department of Public Health.
MARTA is suspending over 60 bus routes starting Monday morning.
The Georgia World Congress Center alternate care facility is up and running. It’s being used for acute COVID-19 patients who are non-emergency but can’t go home to recover.
Contamination at an Atlanta CDC laboratory may have caused a delay in producing a test kit for detecting coronavirus, officials said Saturday.
Holding pictures of their late loved ones, family members and several lawmakers rallied near the Arbor Terrace at Cascade on Friday. The facility confirmed that 15 residents have now died of the coronavirus at the assisted living facility in southwest Atlanta.
The University of Georgia has rescheduled spring graduation for October.
It is an offseason victory for the Georgia Bulldogs that Jeremy Klawsky, a member of their football staff, is out of the hospital after spending weeks on a ventilator battling coronavirus. Channel 2’s Tony Thomas learned about the huge celebration that included Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart.
On Friday night, skywriters painted hearts over several metro Atlanta hospitals.