19, and mayor van johnson issued a stay-at-home order on march 24, effective through april 8. johnson said that the order was "necessary and prudent to enhance and escalate our action plan to minimize the exposure of savannahians to this virus". on march 26, effingham county declared a state of emergency and "urged" residents to shelter in place. springfield declared an emergency the same day. on march 20, tybee island closed its public beaches and banned the open consumption of alcohol. the island town also ordered all businesses on the island to close from 11 pm to 7 am. on march 28, mayor shirley sessions ordered all non-essential businesses on the island to close and banned large groups from march 28 through april 9. gwinnett county issued a stay-at-home order effective march 28 through april 13. the order covers the county as well as its 16 cities. georgia cities and counties under executive orders municipality emergency stay-at-home curfew date length athens–clarke county yes march 19, 2020 atlanta yes yes march 23, 2020 cobb county yes march 24, 2020 april 15, 2020 dekalb county yes yes march 28, 2020 indefinite dougherty county yes march 20, 2020 effingham county yes march 26, 2020 gwinnett county yes march 28, 2020 april 13, 2020 savannah yes yes march 24, 2020 april 8, 2020 south fulton yes march 17, 2020 mask mandate conflict amidst a rise in cases in july 2020, a number of areas enacted mandates requiring the wearing of face coverings in public spaces when social distancing is not possible, including atlanta (whose mayor keisha lance bottoms has been among georgians who have tested positive; bottoms also rolled back the city to phase 1 guidance, discouraging dine-in restaurants). however, governor kemp declared such orders to be unenforceable as they are a stricter mitigation than those specified by the state. on july 15, kemp signed an executive order overruling all mask mandates not issued by the state, and prohibiting any future mandate. furthermore, kemp filed a lawsuit against the city council of atlanta and mayor bottoms, asserting that she "does not have the legal authority to modify, change or ignore governor kemp's executive orders". bottoms criticized kemp's action, saying that her order was enforceable and stands, and that "public health experts overwhelmingly agree that wearing a face covering helps slow the spread of this sometimes deadly virus". on august 13, kemp abruptly dropped the suit, and announced the next day that localized mask mandates would be allowed if certain criteria are met. on october 16, state representative vernon jones expressed his opposition to mask mandates by crowdsurfing without a mask at a 7,000 person campaign rally for donaldtrump in macon. many rally attendees were also maskless, despite bibb county's mask mandate. in august 2021, kemp signed a new executive order prohibiting local governments from enforcing mask and vaccination mandates. school closures emory university became the first college in the state on march 11 to announce it was closing its campus and moving classes online for the remainder of the semester. the university system of georgia announced that its 26 public institutions would remain open based on the current advice of the georgia department of public health. three hours later the decision was reversed and the university system of georgia has temporarily suspended instruction for two weeks starting on march 16. on march 14, gwinnett technical college decided to close both of its campuses from march 16 through march 22, after announcing on march 13 that from march 23, to resume all currently 100% online courses as usual, and to convert all other courses to online instruction where possible. also on march 12, 2020, many school districts in the state of georgia decided to cancel classes for at least two weeks, such as cobb county school district, who had an elementary school teacher test positive for the coronavirus. on april 1, 2020, kemp ordered that all k-12 schools close through the end of the 2019–20 academic year. school districts will continue to educate students remotely. state officials have delayed the high-stakes testing that guides much of the instruction and are expecting approval from the federal government to scrap the tests altogether. votes on response bills congress has so far debated and enacted three bills meant to help the nation respond to the pandemic: the coronavirus preparedness and response supplemental appropriations act, 2020 (signed march 6), the families first coronavirus response act (signed march 18), and the coronavirus aid, relief, and economic security act (signed march 27). both of georgia's senators at the time, david perdue and kelly loeffler, supported all three bills. representatives jody hice and barry loudermilk voted against the families first coronavirus response act. hice told reporters that the house was "not given the opportunity to even read the legislation before pelosi forced a vote, and no cost estimate had been prepared," and also falsely claimed that the law would repeal the hyde amendment, calling it "par for the course for the left, the activist left". representative john lewis did not vote on the coronavirus preparedness and response act or on the families first coronavirus response act; representative david scott did not vote on the coronavirus preparedness and response act; and representative tom graves did not vote on the families first coronavirus response act. loeffler stock sell-off controversy senator loeffler, after a private briefing on the coronavirus from the united states senate committee on health, education, labor and pensions on january 24, 2020, began to offload various stocks — by february 14, she had sold between $1.2 million and $3.1 million worth of holdings. these actions attracted widespread condemnation — democratic senate contender raphael warnock called her actions "unconscionable", republican senate contender, us representative doug collins said he was "sickened just thinking about it", and georgia speaker david ralston said he was "absolutely worried about the down-ticket damage". public transportation street sign in brunswick marta in an effort to reduce exposure between bus drivers and riders, marta starting requiring passengers to use the rear door. since the fare box is at the front near the driver, marta stopped collecting fares on buses. by the end of march, ridership on trains had fallen 67% and bus ridership dropped by 55% compared with the previous month, reflecting national trends. a coalition of public transportation systems across the country — marta, along with bay area rapid transit, the chicago transit authority, dallas area rapid transit, king county metro, the los angeles county metropolitan transportation authority, the metropolitan transportation authority, nj transit, the san francisco municipal transportation agency, and the washington metropolitan area transit authority — requested at least $25 billion in relief from the federal government. as of july 11, a policy has been put in place by the company to require masks for all transportation run by marta. other public transport in cobb county, cobblinc blocked access to seats near the front of the bus to maintain distance between the drivers and passengers. gwinnett county transit, similar to marta, stopped bus fare collection and only use the rear door. private sector responses sign in brunswick, may 11, 2020 outside service at a tavern in savannah, may 22, 2020 commercial entities six flags over georgia announced that the theme park would close temporarily from march 13 to april 1. on march 30, it reported that it would not open until mid-may. emory healthcare announced the postponement of "all inpatient and outpatient elective surgical and procedural cases" starting on march 16. furry weekend atlanta, a furry convention held in atlanta, announced that the 2020 iteration of the convention scheduled for may had been cancelled in response to the covid-19 pandemic. other attractions in atlanta that have closed temporarily include the children's museum of atlanta, the world of coca-cola, the college football hall of fame, fernbank museum of natural history, georgia aquarium, the national center for civil and human rights, and zoo atlanta. foundations and charities the arthur m. blank family foundation announced on march 20 that it would donate $5 million to an atlanta coronavirus fund set up by united way of greater atlanta, and community foundation for northeast georgia in atlanta, in addition to $400,000 in other grants for non-profits in georgia and montana. in an effort to support local artists, non-profit create dunwoody created "everything will be ok" yard signs which became popular. impact airline passengers at hartsfield-jackson atlanta international airport wearing facemasks economy during the week of march 16–20, unemployment benefit filings in georgia increased by 400%. businesses and workers from all over have been affected. politics georgia's democratic presidential primary elections were originally scheduled for march 24, 2020, but they were moved to may 19. on march 24, secretary of state brad raffensperger announced that all registered voters would receive absentee ballot request forms in the mail. georgia house speaker david ralston wanted to further postpone the election to at least june 23, but raffensperger insisted the may date would proceed, saying that his plan "keeps the integrity of the vote, while also prioritizing the health and safety of georgia voters". on march 10, state senator brandon beach started showing symptoms of covid-19 and was tested on march 14. however, he attended a special session of the legislature on march 16 before his test results arrived on march 18 showing that he had tested positive. the entire georgia state senate, their staffs, and lieutenant governor geoff duncan went into quarantine until march 30. sports main article: impact of the covid-19 pandemic on sports most of the state's sports teams were affected. several leagues began postponing or suspending their seasons starting march 12. major league baseball cancelled the remainder of spring training on that date, and on march 16, they announced that the season will be postponed indefinitely, after the recommendations from the cdc to restrict events of more than 50 people for the next eight weeks, affecting the atlanta braves. also on march 12, the national basketball association announced the season would be suspended for 30 days, affecting the atlanta hawks. the ncaa also cancelled all of its remaining tournaments for the academic year, including the 2020 ncaa division i men's basketball tournament — whose semi-finals and championship game were originally to be hosted by atlanta. the masters, held annually in augusta, were postponed and are tentatively rescheduled for november 12–15, 2020. nascar was scheduled to race at atlanta motor speedway on march 13–15, on march 12 nascar announced that the events would be held without crowds in the stand, but however 24 hours later the races were cancelled and rescheduled for june 6–7 entertainment the touring production of hamilton, originally scheduled to play at the fox theatre in april, moved its dates to august 4 – september 5, causing a production of ain't too proud to be moved to later in the season and for a concert by blackberry smoke with the wild feathers and an appearance from iliza shlesinger to be postponed. judicial system grand juries were not allowed to convene through june 12, which consequently delayed a review over whether charges should be filed in the murder of ahmaud arbery in february.