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I-Team Exclusive: Gov. Brian Kemp orders Atlanta nursing home deep cleaned

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Updated  April 21, 2020 2:03pm EDT
COVID-19 and the Economy
FOX 5 Atlanta

ATLANTA - Governor Brian Kemp ordered the National Guard to conduct a deep cleaning of a downtown Atlanta nursing home after the home twice declined state offers to decontaminate and disinfect the facility.

Legacy Transitional Care and Rehabilitation Center already had eight residents and three staffers diagnosed with COVID19 when Kemp order the cleaning. 

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Since late March, Gov. Brian Kemp has utilized the Georgia National Guard in the state's war on COVID19. Citizen soldiers have been performing deep cleanings of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

But Legacy Transitional Care and Rehabilitation twice turned down an offer by the state to clean its facility, according to the Governor's office. The center sits in the shadow of the King Center in downtown Atlanta.

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Governor orders care facility deep cleaned and residents tested

Gov. Kemp stepped in after a long-term care facility that refused help from the Georgia National Guard had several cases of COVID-19 among residents and staff.

According to the Department of Community Health web site, Legacy Transitional Care has 159 residents. Eight have been diagnosed with COVID19 as well as three more staffers.

A surprising number to Gerald Brown

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"I was shocked to the fact of not knowing, nothing. Nothing at all," Brown said.

Brown has a brother in Legacy Transitional Care. He says he had no idea that residents were sick with COVID-19.

"What would you think of that? I think it is deplorable. It is pathetic that's what I think," said Brown.

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Our sources say that after Legacy Transitional Care turned down offers to have the facility cleaned, Kemp ordered the Guard to deep clean the facility. It took place yesterday.

The National Guard's 201st Regional Support Group posted pictures on its Facebook page showing the beginning of the deep clean.

According to a National Guard source, a second team from the National Guard delivered COVID-19 test kits to the facility and assisted the Fulton County Board of Health in testing residents for the virus.

The Legacy Transitional Care administrator would not respond to our phone call for comment.