Southern States, Like Georgia, Push to Reopen With Economic Pressure Rising | Bloomberg - From Gratitude to Greatness: Brownlee Global's Path to a Purposeful LifeFrom Gratitude to Greatness: Brownlee Global's Path to a Purposeful Life

Georgia, South Carolina moves come days after Trump guidelines
Questions remain about whether those states meet benchmarks

Southern Republican governors who were among the last to institute shelter-at-home orders are now pushing to become the first to lift them. In Georgia, for example, the state will begin opening up this week with:

Gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools and massage therapists can reopen Friday, April 24, Kemp said, provided workers wear masks and gloves, stay six feet away from each other and are screened for symptoms.
Dine-in options at restaurants, private social clubs and theaters will be able to reopen on April 27 “subject to specific social distancing and sanitation mandates,” which will be released in the coming days, Kemp said.
Bars, nightclubs, amusement parks and live performance venues will remain closed.

“In the same way that we carefully closed businesses and urged operations to end to mitigate the virus’ spread, today, we are announcing plans to incrementally – and safely – reopen sectors of our economy,” Governor Kemp said on Monday.

The announcements came Monday afternoon after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp spent the weekend talking to his fellow Republican governors in the South about how best to restart their economies in response to guidelines issued last week by the White House.

Coming just four days after President Donald Trump issued the guidelines, the announcements raised questions about whether the states were moving too quickly.

Dr. Deborah Birx, the U.S. State Department immunologist and one of Trump’s top medical advisers, said Monday evening that it was up to governors to determine whether they are meeting the criteria set by the White House last Thursday.

Recommendations, not Requirements

Public-health experts say all of these conditions should be met before a state considers reopening.

With the virus still spreading across the country, states would be hard-pressed to meet all of these criteria. But because they are only recommendations, not requirements, states can proceed with reopening their economies.

In Georgia, the public health department reports a peak of 811 confirmed cases on April 6. Cases show a downward trajectory since then, though April 14 came close to the peak with 779 confirmed cases. A decrease of 32 cases is still a decrease, but not one which would necessarily leave public-health experts feeling confident in a state’s ability to reopen.

In any case, the guidelines are merely suggestions. If the states decline to follow them, they won’t be held liable by the federal government.

The swift reopening in Georgia is premature, said Harry Heiman, an associate professor at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health.

“On the one hand,” Heiman said, Kemp and his team “seem to understand the elements that need to be in place. On the other hand, those elements don’t seem to be in place.”

Sources:

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Southern States, Like Georgia, Push to Reopen With Economic Pressure Rising | Bloomberg

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