MACON, Ga. — Governor Brian Kemp's order to reopen some Georgia businesses is now in effect, despite days of criticism from President Donald Trump.
The White House coronavirus task force released guidelines for reopening states. They include criteria states should meet before beginning the reopening process.
The guidelines are just guidelines. They're not mandatory.
They are encouraged, though, and President Trump says Kemp is not following them.
Information obtained from the North Central Health District suggests the same.
Among other things, the federal guidelines call for a 14-day downward trend in cases before states start to reopen.
Wednesday night, Governor Kemp said Georgia had not yet met that criteria yet, but he hoped the state would by today.
"We believe that we are seeing that data and we will meet that criteria when we start opening back up," he told 13WMAZ's sister station in Atlanta, WXIA.
We asked if that hope had come true and Georgia really had met that criteria. Kemp's press secretary did not respond to that question.
The federal guidelines also call for restrictions to be loosened in phases, with some businesses reopening sooner than others.
Thursday, President Trump said Kemp's decision to begin reopening some businesses, like nail salons, and tattoo parlors, is premature.
"I said 'you make your own decision,' I told him that," said President Trump. "I said 'you're not in the guidelines but I'm letting you make your own decision, but I want people to be safe. and I want the people in Georgia to be safe, and I don't want this thing to flare up because you're deciding to do something that's not in the guidelines.'"
Federal reopening guidelines also call for the "ability to...trace contacts of COVID positive results."
The guidelines say that's one of the "Core State Preparedness Responsibilities."
Contact tracing is a practice used by public health professionals.
It typically works by identifying infected people, isolating them, then tracking down people they could have possibly infected and then getting them tested and into quarantine while awaiting the results.
The goal is to limit the spread of an illness once a carrier is identified.
"In general, we're looking for close contacts," said North Central Health District spokesperson Michael Hokanson.
The North Central Health District is the regional Department of Public Health (DPH) office that covers 13 Central Georgia counties, including Bibb and Houston.
Hokanson says the district is not conducting contact tracing for many confirmed cases of COVID-19.
"Unfortunately, with the spike of cases and the lack of manpower within our district...we are limiting our contact tracing to those high-risk individuals," he said.
That high-risk group includes healthcare workers, first responders, and those who work in long-term care facilities like nursing homes.
He said if the North Central Health District finds out somebody with a confirmed case attended a large gathering like a church service or goes to work somewhere with lots of people, the district will attempt to notify somebody at that location (a pastor or a manager, for instance) so they, in turn, can notify the full group that was in attendance.
For almost everyone else, he says the North Central Health District is not conducting contact tracing.
Instead, if you get a confirmed case of the virus, Hokanson says the health district will give you a handout with public health information and then ask you to share that handout with people you may have had close contact with on your own.
Hokanson says there are now too many cases in the district to conduct traditional contact tracing for all of them.
"We do only have one epidemiologist, one surveillance epidemiologist and we've pulled in staff members from our infectious disease group, our tuberculosis program, our nursing program to assist in this," he said.
More staff are needed, and Hokanson says the district is looking for people to fill roles.
When we asked the Governor's office to respond to the President's comments, Kemp's press secretary referred us to a series of tweets from the governor, saying the decision to reopen was based on the advice of public health advisors.
President Trump said federal public health experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, were also unease with Kemp's plan.
Kemp's press secretary would not say why the Governor's public health advice differed from federal experts'.
Governor Kemp's office did not directly respond to questions about contact tracing in the North Central Health District, saying only, "DPH can provide you an overview of their contact tracing plans for the state."
The North Central Health District is a DPH office.
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