Senate Ratifies Executive Order Declaring Public Health Emergency

ATLANTA (March 17, 2020) | Yesterday, President Pro Tempore Butch Miller (R – Gainesville) and members of the Senate ratified Gov. Brian Kemp’s executive order declaring a public health emergency in Georgia during a special session of the Georgia General Assembly.

“After weeks of thoughtful consideration and after taking into account the advice of local, state and national health officials, Gov. Kemp has called for a Public Health Emergency in Georgia as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, which was ratified today by both chambers of the General Assembly,” said Sen. Miller. “While this is an unprecedented order, it is necessary in an unprecedented situation such as this. By ratifying this order, we are entrusting the Governor with additional powers to more efficiently address the COVID-19 pandemic in our state and grant him the ability to allocate additional state resources to help those most in need. The Governor’s Office, the Georgia Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to monitor this situation and I encourage Georgians to visit the public websites of these departments to stay up to date on additional information, as it becomes available.”

To view the Governor’s Executive Order declaring a Public Health Emergency, follow this link: https://gov.georgia.gov/executive-action/executive-orders-0/2020-executive-orders

To view the latest information on COVID-19 in Georgia, refer to the website for the Georgia Department of Public Health here: https://dph.georgia.gov/

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For Immediate Release:

Mar. 17, 2020

Andrew Allison, Acting Director

andrew.allison@senate.ga.gov

404.656.0028