Boyce: ‘No intention’ to close Cobb businesses; parks staying open

In a video message Friday, Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said he’s not inclined to declare a state of emergency in the county, even though two Cobb cities have done that.

The City of Smyrna has declared a state of emergency starting at 8 p.m. Friday until April 3, prohibiting gatherings of 10 people or more, ordering certain businesses to close and forbidding restaurants from providing dining room service.

The City of Kennesaw also has declared a state of emergency, though no businesses are being forced to close.

The day after Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said he will not ask businesses to close, or to impose a statewide curfew or quarantine, Boyce echoed the same sentiments for Cobb County.

“I have no intention of asking the board [county commission] to get together to require businesses to close,” he said. “If we give you the facts as to what this virus does and what we need to do to mitigate it, you’ll take the necessary measures to do that.

“I don’t think we have to close businesses for business owners to see that they have to make necessary adjustments to do things like takeout service, or to spread out the distance between customers so they don’t interact with each other.

“If in fact we think the virus is transmitted in a way that requires us to totally close the businesses, that’s something the governor will probably institute, or the president of the United States.”

Boyce said they have access to more information than he does, and urged citizens to get behind them.

He also said Cobb parks will be remaining open. It’s one of the few components of county government that isn’t being closed or limited to due to “limited operations status” that went into effect on Wednesday.

“People are simply going to use those parks,” he said. “That’s just human nature. They’re going to get out of their houses, they’re getting cabin fever. They want to go somewhere, at least for a little while, where they can have some comfort.”

He said if something should happen at a park, “we would have a presence there” to address whatever the issue might be.

Cobb commissioners meetings for Monday and Tuesday have been postponed, and Cobb zoning meetings for April have been postponed to May.

Cobb’s positive Coronavirus case total is now at 47, with one of 14 deaths in the state, as Georgia’s case number jumped to 485, nearly 50 percent higher than Thursday.

As for testing for the Coronavirus locally, Boyce said Cobb doesn’t have the number of test kits available to match the number of people who may have the virus. He didn’t specify a figure.

In his update on Thursday, Kemp said the emphasis would be on testing elderly and ill citizens, those who’ve shown symptoms and health care and medical professionals.

Boyce urged Cobb citizens to “take personal responsibility” to mitigate the spread of the virus, including social distancing, staying home if they’re sick and following other hygiene guidelines.

He said starting Monday he would be working from a Cobb emergency management operations venue to coordinate responses to the Coronavirus outbreak.

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• Temporary workers to be paid by Cobb schools
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• Cobb public health to offer limited Coronavirus testing
• Cobb government to go into ‘limited operations status’

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