Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Gov. Kemp Signs New COVID-19 Executive Order

Published

4 years ago

June 13, 2020

Today Governor Brian P. Kemp signed Executive Order 06.11.20.01 – Empowering a Healthy Georgia. The order addresses ongoing emergency response efforts for fighting the spread of COVID-19. Unless noted otherwise in specific sections, the order goes into effect at 12 AM on June 16, 2020 and runs through 11:59 PM on June 30, 2020.

Sports: Effective June 16, professional sports teams and organizations must follow the rules and guidelines set by their respective leagues. High school and collegiate teams and organizations must follow the rules and guidelines set by their applicable conferences or associations. Amateur sports teams and organizations must follow the criteria for non-critical infrastructure entities outlined in the order.

Sheltering in Place: Effective immediately, residents and visitors of Georgia who are sixty-five years of age or older are no longer required to shelter in place unless they meet any of the following categories:

Those persons who live in a nursing home or long-term care facility, including inpatient hospice, assisted living communities, personal care homes, intermediate care homes, community living arrangements, and community integration homes
Those persons who have chronic lung disease
Those persons who have moderate to severe asthma
Those persons who have severe heart disease
Those persons who are immunocompromised
Those persons, of any age, with class III or severe obesity
Those persons diagnosed with the following underlying medical conditions: diabetes, liver disease, and persons with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis

Gatherings: Effective June 16, gatherings of more than fifty people are banned unless there is at least six feet between each person. This rule does not apply to critical infrastructure entities, incidental or transitory groupings, or cohabitating individuals.

Drinking and Eating (effective June 16): In restaurants and dining rooms, there is no longer a party maximum for the number of people who can sit together. There is no longer a limit on the number of patrons allowed per square foot. Workers at restaurants, dining rooms, banquet facilities, private event facilities, and private reception venues are only required to wear face coverings when they are interacting with patrons. In a bar, now you can have fifty people – up from twenty-five – or thirty-five percent of total listed fire capacity, whichever is greater. For salad bars and buffets, a worker can use cafeteria-style service to serve patrons or the establishment can provide hand sanitizer, install a sneeze guard, enforce social distancing, and regularly replace shared utensils to allow patron self-service.

Overnight Summer Camps (effective June 16): Campers and workers may not attend an overnight summer camp unless they have received a negative COVID-19 test within twelve days – up from seven days – prior to starting camp.

Conventions: Effective July 1, a “convention” may occur if it meets twenty-one specific requirements in addition to the requirements for non-critical infrastructure entities. “Convention” means “an organized event of more than 100 persons that are required to register or obtain a license to gather for a common purpose at a single indoor facility or grouping of indoor facilities for more than four hours and in some cases for more than one day” and “shall include exhibitions, trade shows, conferences, and business retreats.” The term “convention” does not include any regular operation of a business that occurs on property owned or leased for the exclusive operation of such business, nor does the term encompass regular religious services, business meetings, sports competitions, or events categorized by O.C.G.A. § 16-11-173(b)(1)(A).

Live Performance Venues: Effective July 1, a “live performance venue” may reopen for business if it complies with specific criteria based on whether it is designated Tier I, II, or III. There are certain exceptions in the order for drive-in performances; private recording sessions, livestream performances, practices, fanless events, and rehearsals; and non-ticketed or free events. “Live Performance Venue” means “any indoor or outdoor location that requires patrons to purchase a license to attend an event featuring live musical, dramatical, automotive, educational, or any other type of entertainment performed before in-person patrons.” The term does not include restaurants and dining rooms, banquet facilities, private event facilities, private reception venues, weddings, drive-in venues, or events held as part of a convention, and the term does not include outdoor recreational fields used for amateur sporting events.

Effective June 16: At indoor movie theaters and cinemas, there is no longer a limit on the number of people who may sit together in a party. Walk-ins are now allowed at body art studios, barber shops, hair salons, their respective schools, massage therapy establishments, and tanning facilities subject to specific requirements.

Mandatory requirements for operating non-critical infrastructure businesses, for-profit corporations, non-profit corporations, and organizations are extended through the end of the month. Specific requirements for previously closed businesses remain in effect.

Source: Press Release from the Office of Governor Brian Kemp

Related Topics:COVID-19 Kemp new executive order

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Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Paul Duke STEM High School PTSA Awarded Grant to Continue COVID-19 Relief Efforts

Published

4 years ago

February 2, 2021

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

mathnasium of berkely lake grant to paul duke hs

National PTA has awarded Paul Duke STEM High School PTSA with a $2,500 grant to continue their efforts to meet critical needs of students. Photo provided by Tina Budnitz, Paul Duke STEM PTSA

National PTA has awarded Paul Duke STEM High School PTSA with a $2,500 grant to continue their efforts to meet critical needs of students, families and teachers in their school community due to COVID-19. The funding is made possible by PTA Proud National Sponsor Mathnasium. The funding is in addition to the $5,000 grant National PTA awarded to Paul Duke STEM PTSA in 2020 to empower their COVID-19 relief efforts.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is not over, and National PTA and PTAs nationwide remain committed to making sure students, families, teachers and schools have what they need during this challenging time,” said Leslie Boggs, president of National PTA. “Paul Duke STEM PTSA has been working hard every day to provide essential resources, tools and information to support families and educators amid the pandemic. With the grant, Paul Duke STEM PTSA will be able to continue to provide critical support to their school community.”

“This year presented many disruptions for students and teachers” Principal Jonathon Wetherington explained. “Some of our students are learning from home, and some at school. Our traditional lessons where students work closely in lab spaces on shared equipment could not work during the COVID outbreak. We are grateful to National PTA and Mathnasium for their support to help us engage our students in new and innovative ways and keep our school community connected”.

The grants enabled our Engineering Department to expand the Maker Space and mentor students through several unique hands-on educational experiences. The science department created and distributed over 600 at-home science experiment kits. Our care team was able to provide assistance to students whose families were experiencing extreme financial hardships. The continuation funds will allow us to host Saturday intervention session for students, support our teachers to share innovations in distance learning techniques, and add to our outdoor classroom.

Paul Duke STEM PTSA’s grants are part of over $1.5M in funding that National PTA has provided to PTAs across the country for COVID-19 relief efforts.

“With the grant funding, PTAs will be able to continue their important and impactful work,” added Nathan R. Monell, CAE, National PTA executive director. “We are grateful to our sponsors, including Mathnasium, for enabling us to provide resources to PTAs to help them care for their school communities.”

In addition to these COVID-19 relief grants, Mathnasium also supports PTAs nationwide with programming intended to increase families’ enthusiasm and confidence in math. Mathnasium is a founding sponsor of National PTA’s STEM + Families initiative. Mathnasium of Berkeley Lake is a long-time partner and supporter of schools in the Paul Duke STEM cluster.

Source: Paul Duke Stem HS Press Release

Coronavirus (COVID-19)

GeneCure Biotechnologies launches first-in-human therapeutic vaccine to treat Covid-19 patients

Published

4 years ago

August 12, 2020

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

GeneCure Biotechnologies, a clinical stage biotechnology company located in Peachtree Corners and developing novel human vaccines based on its patented SimVec platform technology, announced August 10 that it has launched a therapeutic vaccine program for Covid-19 infection.

The outbreak of Covid-19 has spread to 5 continents and caused near 20 millions confirmed cases. Recent clinical evidences suggest SARS-COV-2 may have a long incubation period and infected individuals may take several weeks to develop symptoms or disease. After infecting with Covid-19, the majority of individuals develop mild symptoms, yet some still transmit virus to others even without clinical symptoms. The treatment option for patients with mild or no clinical symptoms is very limited at this time. This situation becomes a serious public health issue — community transmission.

Dr. Tung, CEO, stated “Traditional vaccines are given to healthy people to prevent infection. However, a therapeutic vaccine is given to infected or uninfected high-risk people to prevent disease and infection. A therapeutic vaccine aims to prevent severe complications of an infection by reinforcing or broadening defenses when specific immune responses are unable to do so during the natural course of the disease and when a conventional antiviral therapy is not sufficient.”

GeneCure’s therapeutic Covid-19 vaccine is based on the SimVec platform which has been utilized for therapeutic vaccines for HIV and HCV. The SimVec delivery platform elicits rapid and strong cell-mediated immune responses, which play critical roles in eliminating viral infected cells. Pre-clinical and clinical studies have shown that the therapeutic HIV vaccine was well tolerated and effective in boosting cell-mediated immunity in HIV infected patients. Durable control of viral load was seen after a 12-week treatment interruption in vaccinated participants. Furthermore, the markers of systemic immune activation/inflammation were also significantly reduced in vaccinated patients.

Dr. Tung also stated “We believe that an effective therapeutic vaccine will prevent disease progression in infected persons and reduce viral transmission which will not only be critical for people at risk for Covid-19 infection but also alleviate the excessive burden on our healthcare system.”

Source

Press release from Genecure Biotechnologies.

Business

City of Peachtree Corners to celebrate safety-conscious businesses

Published

4 years ago

July 22, 2020

Peachtree Corners Magazine staff

The City of Peachtree Corners is preparing a list of all local businesses practicing the safety measures recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Those businesses taking steps to keep citizens healthy will be published on the city website, in the Shop and Dine app, and in the monthly business newsletter as part of the city’s “Stay Healthy” campaign.

The Stay Healthy campaign is getting creative in its approach to public service announcements related to Covid19. The city is working to promote staying healthy through the use of comic book superheroes and popular TV show characters. In the coming weeks, expect to see banners, signs, posters and billboards, as well as social media posts spreading the message to wash hands frequently, wear face coverings, and practice social distancing.

Take part in the campaign! If you operate a safe business, let Jennifer Howard from the city office know so it can be added to the list of safety-conscious businesses in the city. Let the community know what steps you are taking to keep your business, patrons, and employees healthy.

Source:

Jennifer Howard, Economic Development Manager- City of Peachtree Corners

Email all entries to jhoward@peachtreecornersga.gov