Savannah Mayor Van Johnson on Tuesday placed a moratorium on issuing permits for events in public spaces and revoked permits for events planned through Sept. 30, including the Savannah Jazz Festival.
Additionally, public events scheduled at the Savannah Civic Center will be cancelled or rescheduled; community centers and most city buildings, including City Hall, will be closed to the public until further notice. The Coastal Georgia Center on Fahm Street will remain open.
The new restrictions come as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to surge across Chatham County and less than a month after the city reinstated its mask mandate.
"In Chatham County our COVID rates continue to grow out of control as we recorded the highest community transmission index ever of 1,270 on Friday," Mayor Johnson said.
The rate has since climbed higher, reaching 1,397 on Monday. The community transmission index reflects the number of newly confirmed cases in the last 14 days per 100,000 residents. The rate was 468 on Aug. 2.
Numbers throughout the state have surpassed the peaks reached in January. Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Brian Kemp announced he would deploy 105 Georgia National Guard members to assist frontline medical workers at hospitals statewide, including Memorial Health University Medical Center.
Johnson said the city has urged the Savannah Jazz Festival to consider a virtual platform for its concerts scheduled for Sept. 23 through Sept. 26 in Forsyth Park. The city has made a similar plea to the Savannah Philharmonic regarding its Picnic in the Park event set for Oct.9.
“The city will offer whatever assistance we can to ensure that these events can be offered in a virtual or hybrid format.” Johnson said, adding that he has also asked Savannah State University to reconsider holding its annual homecoming parade, which typically takes place in October.
Savannah Jazz interim executive director, Paula Fogarty said with the permit revoked this year’s festival will look a lot like the 2020 festival, which was livestreamed in front of a limited live audience at the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum. This year’s event will move to Savannah Station, which will allow for a slightly larger audience, although exact numbers haven’t been nailed down yet.
The schedule, line up and timing for performances will remain the same, only the location is changing and Fogarty said they’ve been prepared with plan b since last year.
“We were ready to do it again if we had to. So we've been ready with two budgets, two production plans, two of everything this year,” Fogarty said.
The festival is free and they will be raffling off tickets to attend performances at Savannah Station. More details are expected in the coming days and will be announced on the festival's Facebook page and at savannahjazz.org.
“It wasn’t unexpected for us just given the rising number of COVID cases in our hospitals. And given how very vigilant the mayor is and how cautious he has been with his leadership and keeping people safe during this awful pandemic,” Fogarty said.
The updated restrictions come less than a week after Gov. Brian Kemp issued an executive order that bans cities from requiring businesses to enforce local restrictions related to the pandemic. Kemp said he was concerned about measures in Atlanta and Savannah, but he did not name any specific regulation or proposal.
Last week Johnson called Kemp’s actions “disappointing, but not surprising.” He didn't mince his words this week, either.
“Don’t try us,” Johnson said Tuesday addressing the governor's order.
“We believe very clearly that we have the standing to (implement restrictions) and obviously if businesses choose not to comply then we have to continue restricting and we don’t want to do that."
The city’s new restrictions also come one day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted full approved for the Pfizer vaccine, which previously was being distributed under an emergency use authorization. Johnson, as he has done repeatedly in recent months, encouraged the public to get vaccinated.
“Hopefully this will increase the confidence of those who are vaccine resistant or hesitant about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines,” he said.
As of Monday, the Georgia Department of Health (GDH) reported that 44% of Chatham County residents have been fully vaccinated and 51% have received at least one dose. That's up from 43% and 49% a week earlier.
Statewide 50% of the population has received at least one dose and 42% are fully vaccinated. Those numbers are also up slightly compared to last Monday.
Johnson said he had recently met with local health officials and discussed additional restrictions, which are still on the table.
“From a purely health-related viewpoint we discussed reimplementing several mitigation strategies, including limiting indoor special gatherings to 10 to 15 people; limiting outdoor social gatherings to 25 to 30 people and requiring bars, clubs, restaurants and gyms to adhere to a 50% indoor capacity," he said.
Johnson said the city will step up enforcement as it relates to the mask mandate. He has also asked Savannah faith leaders to reevaluate their current worship formats and consider reducing in-person contact.
Acknowledging that the new measures are inconvenient and uncomfortable, Johnson said they are deliberate intermediate steps in lieu of the more restrictive measures that have been recommended, such as reducing operating hours for bars and clubs.
“We are considering implementing those measures if the proposed measures fail to decrease our community spread,” Johnson said.
Decisions about events scheduled for October and November will be made next month and will be based on COVID-19 statistics, Johnson said.
“Savannah, it’s up to us. It’s totally up to us, if we do better, we get better,” he said.
Katie Nussbaum is the city and county government reporter for the Savannah Morning News. Contact her at knussbaum@savannahnow.com. Twitter: KmartSMN
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: City of Savannah pulls permits amid COVID-19 surge; more restrictions possible
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