UGA, UNG reopening campuses today

University of Georgia staffers will begin, in a limited and phased-in fashion, their return to campus today: it is a campus that has been largely closed since mid-March because of coronavirus concerns. UGA and the University of North Georgia are among the schools that are making plans for in-person and in-classroom learning for fall semester classes that are scheduled to begin in two months.

Athens’ coronavirus case count is leveling off, with 342 cases reported by the Georgia Department of Public Health and still 15 deaths in Athens. Oconee County has 128 cases and nine deaths from coronavirus.

Georgia’s coronavirus case count checks in at 57,681: the state Department of Public Health is now reporting 2,451 deaths from COVID 19 and 9,248 hospitalizations. Nearly all residents of Georgia's nursing homes have now been tested for COVID 19. According to numbers from the Department of Community Health, the state has tested 97 percent of residents in nursing homes with at least 25 patients. That's a 12 percent improvement in nursing home testing in one week.

State lawmakers resume today the legislative session that was interrupted in mid-March by the outbreak of coronavirus in Georgia. They will finish work on a budget for the fiscal year that begins in July, a budget Governor Kemp says will need to be cut by eleven percent to deal with revenue shortfalls caused by the state’s response to the COVID pandemic.

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