Gov. Kemp hopes cancellation threat of upcoming football season encourages mask use

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    ATLANTA, GA (WGCL) — As college football fans turn their eyes toward the upcoming season with fall practice set to start later this month for some teams, Governor Brian Kemp said it’s going to be a “tall task” to have a season at all due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Well, if people, especially our young people don’t start wearing a mask when they go out in public and our numbers keep rising, that’s going to be a tall task,” Governor Kemp said Wednesday when talking about the possibility of a college football season.

The Governor’s statement came as Georgia continued to see near record numbers of cases daily. The state has reported at least 1,700 cases every day since June 23 and peaked over the weekend with 2,225 cases reported on Sunday. An even larger spike in COVID-19 cases has been reported in Florida, Texas, Arizona and other states in the past two weeks.

Many schools have college football players already back on campus and have started testing programs for the athletes. No major conferences have announced any major changes to how they are planning to play the current season, but many athletic directors have said they don’t expect to be playing in front of packed crowds as they have in the past.

And while Kemp said it would be a “tall task,” he also expressed optimism that the state could come together and ring the numbers down far enough to safely play the season.

“If we all hunker down right now for the next two or three weeks and get this turned in the right direction like it was…that is what we need for our case count,” Kemp said.

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