Georgia Orders Residents and Visitors to Shelter in Place

A resident or visitor of Georgia is not required to shelter in place if they are:

• Engaging in “essential services”
• Working in “critical infrastructure”
• Engaging in “minimum basic operations”
• Performing “necessary travel”

Residents and visitors leaving home are required to practice social distancing according to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Further, no more than 10 people can gather at a single location if they are standing or sitting within six feet of another person, except for operations of critical infrastructure.

Visitors
Visitors are limited by the shelter-in-place order to those:

• Providing medical, behavioral health or emergency services or medical supplies or medication, including home hospice;
• Providing support for the person to conduct activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living;
• Providing necessary supplies and services, such as food and supplies for household consumption and use, supplies and equipment needed to work from home, and products needed to maintain safety, sanitation and essential maintenance of the home or residence; or
• Visitors received during end-of-life circumstances.

To the extent practicable, visitors must maintain at least six feet of distance between all occupants in the home and deliver goods or supplies in a manner that doesn’t require in-person contact or the visitor to enter the person’s home. These provisions will be strictly enforced against nursing homes and other long-term facilities.

Necessary Travel
“Necessary travel” is limited to travel required to conduct or participate in:

• Essential services
• Critical infrastructure
• Minimum basic operations

Essential Services
“Essential services” are limited to:

• Obtaining necessary supplies and services for family or household members, such as food and supplies for household consumption and use, medical supplies or medication, supplies and equipment needed to work from home, and products needed to maintain safety, sanitation and essential maintenance of the home or residence.
  • The order instructs preference to be given to online ordering, home delivery and curbside pick-up services wherever possible, as opposed to in-store shopping.
• Engaging in activities essential for the health and safety of family or household members, such as seeking medical, behavioral health or emergency services.
• Engaging in outdoor exercise activities so long as a minimum distance of six (6) feet is maintained during such activities between all persons who are not occupants of the same household or residence.

 Restaurants and private social clubs are permitted to offer takeout, curbside pick-up, and delivery only. However, hospitals, health care facilities, nursing homes or other long-term care facilities are exempt from the ban on dine-in services. Notably, the shelter-in-place order specifically exempts the sale, dispensing, or transportation of firearms or ammunition.

Critical Infrastructure
Governor Kemp’s shelter-in-place order protects “critical infrastructure” from being impeded by any county, municipal or local ordinances. “Critical infrastructure” is defined alongside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security guidance on the “essential critical infrastructure workforce.”

The shelter-in-place order also includes suppliers that provide essential goods and services to the critical infrastructure workforce, entities that provide legal services, home hospice, and nonprofit corporations or nonprofit organizations that offer food distribution or other health or mental health services as “critical infrastructure.”

Critical infrastructure entities that will continue in-person operations are encouraged to implement mitigating measures 1-16 (below).

Businesses that Must Close
The shelter-in-place order includes a list of businesses that must stop in-person operations and close to the public, including:

• Bars
• Nightclubs
• Gyms
• Fitness centers
• Bowling allies
• Theaters
• Live performance venues
• Operators of amusement parks
• Dine in-services at restaurants and private social clubs
  • Exceptions: Take-out; curbside pick-up; delivery; and dine-in services at hospitals, health care facilities, nursing homes or other long-term care facilities
• Estheticians (e.g., waxing, threading, eyelash extensions, cosmetic treatments)
• Hair designers
• Body art studios (commonly known as tattoo parlors)
• Beauty shops and salons (including home beauty shops and salons)
• Barber shops (including home barber shops)
• Cosmetology schools
• Hair design schools
• Barbering schools
• Esthetics schools
• Nail care schools
• Licensed massage therapists

Minimum Basic Operations
All businesses that are not designated as “critical infrastructure” but not included on the list of businesses that must close must limit operations to “minimum basic operations,” defined as:

• The minimum necessary activities to maintain the value of a business, establishment, corporation, nonprofit corporation, or organization, provide services, manage inventory, ensure security, process payroll and employee benefits, or for related functions. Such minimum necessary activities include remaining open to the public subject to the restrictions of this Order.
• The minimum necessary activities to facilitate employees or volunteers being able to work remotely from their residences or members or patrons being able to participate remotely from their residences.
• Instances where employees are working outdoors without regular contact with other persons, such as delivery services, contractors, landscape businesses and agricultural industry services.

Businesses engaging in minimum basic operations are required to meet mitigating measures 1-20 (below).

Mitigating Measures
Both critical infrastructure and businesses adhering to minimum basic operations that maintain in-person operation are required to implement measures to mitigate the exposure and spread of COVID-19.

Such measures include:

1. Screening and evaluating workers who exhibit signs of illness, such as a fever over 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit, cough or shortness of breath;
2. Requiring workers who exhibit signs of illness to not report to work or to seek medical attention;
3. Enhancing sanitation of the workplace as appropriate;
4. Requiring hand washing or sanitation by workers at appropriate places within the business location;
5. Providing personal protective equipment as available and appropriate to the function and location of the worker within the business location;
6. Prohibiting gatherings of workers during working hours;
7. Permitting workers to take breaks and meals outside, in their office or personal workspace, or in such other areas where proper social distancing is attainable;
8. Implementing teleworking for all possible workers;
9. Implementing staggered shifts for all possible workers;
10. Holding all meetings and conferences virtually, wherever possible;
11. Delivering intangible services remotely wherever possible;
12. Discouraging workers from using other workers' phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment;
13. Prohibiting handshaking and other unnecessary person-to person contact in the workplace;
14. Placing notices that encourage hand hygiene at the entrance to the workplace and in other workplace areas where they are likely to be seen;
15. Suspending the use of Personal Identification Number (PIN) pads, PIN entry devices, electronic signature capture, and any other credit card receipt signature requirements to the extent such suspension is permitted by agreements with credit card companies and credit agencies;
16. Enforcing social distancing of non-cohabitating persons while present on such entity's leased or owned property;
17. For retailers and service providers, providing for alternative points of sale outside of buildings, including curbside pick-up or delivery of products and/or services if an alternative point of sale is permitted under Georgia law;
18. Increasing physical space between workers and customers;
19. Providing disinfectant and sanitation products for workers to clean their workspace, equipment, and tools;
20. Increasing physical space between workers' worksites to at least six (6) feet.

Enforcement
The Department of Public Health, the Department of Public Safety, and any other state department or state officer is authorized, after reasonable notice, to close any business in violation of the shelter-in-place order. Violations are also subject to a misdemeanor charge.

Gov. Kemp’s shelter-in-place order suspends all local ordinances or orders related to COVID-19. For the duration of the shelter-in-place order, counties and municipalities are prohibited from adopting similar ordinances or orders, except those to enforce compliance with the shelter-in-place order. Except in the case of a quarantine or isolation order for a specific person, the shelter-in-place order controls in the event of any inconsistency with previous executive orders.

For more information, please reach out to your regular Pillsbury contact or the authors of this client alert.

Pillsbury’s experienced crisis management professionals are closely monitoring the global threat of COVID-19, drawing on the firm’s capabilities in supply chain management, insurance law, cybersecurity, employment law, corporate law and other areas to provide critical guidance to clients in an urgent and quickly evolving situation. For more thought leadership on this rapidly developing topic, please visit our COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Resource Center.