ATLANTA — Governor Brian Kemp and state officials gave an update on COVID-19 in Georgia on Monday afternoon.
In it, he detailed his latest executive order that he signed earlier in the day.
It calls up 1,500 additional Georgia National Guard troops to help with the state’s COVID-19 response. That raises the total statewide up to 2,500 troops helping hospitals and other healthcare groups.
The order also continues the suspension of federal rules and regulations for operators of commercial vehicles to ensure an 'uninterrupted supply of healthcare supplies.'
Kemp also encouraged Georgians on the fence about being vaccinated to speak with their healthcare providers.
Georgia Department of Public Health commissioner, Dr. Kathleen Toomey, spoke next and said the state is behind with the Delta surge.
"We are now approaching among the worst cases in both case numbers and hospitalizations we've had since January -- in some cases actually worse in some parts of the state than we were in January," said Toomey.
She says a significant number of those cases are school-age children and they've quadrupled in the last few weeks, with the sharpest increase being in the 11-17 age group.
"Children can transmit the virus and they are becoming infected. Fortunately not as many are becoming hospitalized," said Toomey.
She also says the state is now seeing the highest number of weekly outbreaks since the pandemic began, and more than half are in K-12 schools.
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