COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Gov. Brian Kemp announced on Sunday that some patients quarantined on the Grand Princess cruise ship, where 21 people out of more than 3,000 aboard have tested positive for coronavirus, would soon be coming to Dobbins Air Reserve Base.
Ahead of their arrival, officials in Cobb County are stressing to the community the low risk the situation will present to the public.
"We live here with you in this community, so we have same concerns you do and we want to make sure that because you are our neighbors, we want to provide we every possible measure to assure you that we're working very closely with federal and state governments to take every precaution to address this quarantine situation," Cobb Commission Chairman Mike Boyce said in a video statement posted to YouTube.
Boyce said none of the passengers coming to Dobbins, many of whom are Georgians themselves, had tested positive for coronavirus.
Dr. Janet MeMark, the Cobb & Douglas Public Health district director, also provided reassurances.
"We wanted to go ahead and reassure everybody about how low risk this continues to be," she said. "The operation at Dobbins is a self-contained operation, the risk to the public for COVID-19 continues to be very low."
Boyce said using Dobbins as a quarantine site had been a contingency plan that had been in place for a number of weeks. It has not been disclosed when the passengers will arrive.
"I just want to let you know that we are ... here with you, and we're going to take every single possible measure to ensure that we are on top of this, and that we're going to be doing everything we possibly can to ensure that your health is the most prominent concern we have," Boyce said.
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