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Governor tells APS limited doses of COVID-19 vaccine prevent him from adding teachers to Phase 1A+

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp responded Friday to the Atlanta Public Schools Board after it requested he add teachers to Phase 1a Plus for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Channel 2′s Richard Elliot obtained a copy of a letter the governor sent back to board saying while he respects teachers and wishes he could, the numbers just won’t let him.

“I agree. If the state were receiving adequate supply of the COVID-19 vaccines, I would quickly move to expand the current vaccination criteria,” Kemp said.

The governor brought up the fact that right now, Georgia is getting only 156,000 doses of the vaccine per week for the next three weeks.

“To prioritize vaccination of teachers and school staff under the age of 65 would mean adding an additional 450,000 Georgians to the rolls of those currently eligible,” Kemp said.

But he promised “as soon as we can expand the current vaccination criteria to include educators and staff, we absolutely will.”

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“I certainly respect the response and understand it, and I understand the challenges that he has,” said Jason Esteves, chair of the Atlanta School Board.

Atlanta Public Schools opened its doors again to in-person learning last month but left it up to parents to decide if they wanted their children to return to school. So far, Esteves says about a third have.

While he says he understands Kemp’s decision not to include teachers in the first vaccination group, Esteves told Elliot that he still believes vaccinating educators and staff is crucial to getting students back in school safely -- so they won’t stop asking.

“All I can do as a board member, and all we can do as a board, is make sure that we’re advocating for our teachers, advocating for our staff to get as many mitigation strategies as possible,” Esteves said.

Esteves said APS is dedicated to following CDC guidelines for returning to in-person learning, including mandating masks and doing surveillance testing.

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