Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams has condemned Gov. Brian Kemp’s new executive order, accusing him of demonstrating “absolutely no competency” in the fight against COVID-19.
Kemp signed an executive order on Wednesday, essentially revoking city-wide mandates that residents wear face coverings in public.
“From the beginning of this catastrophe, Brian Kemp has demonstrated he has absolutely no competency in this process. This is the same man who didn’t understand weeks after the world knew that asymptomatic people could spread the disease,” said Abrams.
“He has thwarted the attempt of the mayor of Savannah, the first mayor to issue this edict recently, saying that if you’re going to come to Savannah, you’ve got to wear a mask.”
Kemp’s executive order “strongly” encourages all residents and visitors in Georgia to “wear face coverings as practicable while outside their homes or place of residence, except when eating, drinking or exercising outdoors,” but stops short of an all-out mandate.
Georgia has had more than 127,838 diagnosed cases of COVID-19, and the number continues to increase by the day.
Abrams says that Kemp is not fit in his role as governor.
“More than 3,000 Georgians have perished, disproportionately Black and Brown Georgians, and he continues to fiddle while Rome burns,” Abrams said. “This is not a man who’s capable of leadership.”
Abrams is not the only state official who has slammed Kemp’s order.
“It is increasingly clear from medical and scientific data that droplet and aerosol transmission of COVID-19 are an enormous community risk, so I made the decision to supplement the governor’s order with a local mask requirement to provide for greater community safety,” Kelly Girtz, mayor of the Athens-Clarke County unified government, said in an email via MarketWatch.
