Georgia’s Governor Brian Kemp re-opened his state on April 24th despite fierce criticism from many politicians.
Due to favorable data & more testing, gyms, fitness centers, bowling alleys, body art studios, barbers, cosmetologists, hair designers, nail care artists, estheticians, their respective schools & massage therapists can reopen Friday, April 24 with Minimum Basic Operations. #gapol
— Governor Brian P. Kemp (@GovKemp) April 20, 2020
Addressing the state, Kemp mandated that businesses take proper safety precautions, including, “screening workers for fever and respiratory illness, enhancing workplace sanitation, wearing masks & gloves if appropriate, separating workspaces by six feet, teleworking if possible & implementing staggered shifts.”
What have been the results? Have Georgia’s infection numbers soared as many on the left predicted? Is Kemp trading “money for lives” as so many brainwashed Democrats have screamed?
Despite headlines in various left-wing rags to the contrary, Georgia’s number of new infections has continued to decline. Some in the left-wing MSM had breathlessly reported over a thousand new cases in Georgia after the lockdown was lifted. The chart shows that the last four days of reporting are well under a 1000 new cases total.
As can be seen in the chart above, there was a spike in REPORTED cases almost as soon as the lockdown was lifted. The problem with following and making too much about one or two days is that reporting is the product of verifying confirmed cases. There can be a lag in reporting. A batch of test results can come in from several previous days all at once. Some county offices may be closed for the weekend. This can happen all over the state inconsistently.
The much better line is the 7-day moving average (orange line). This smooths out some of those inconsistencies. Clearly Georgia’s number of new cases is declining and there has been some acceleration in that decline since the order went into effect. I would not make too much of the acceleration. The important item is the declining slope of such infections.
I would predict an uptick in reported cases this Monday. The chart shows a consistent uptick on Mondays throughout much of the reporting period. This is undoubtedly due to receiving updates from county offices that were closed during the weekend.
It should be noted that approximately one-third of all Georgia’s confirmed cases (28K+) are in the Atlanta metro area. There are dozens of counties in Georgia that have not yet recorded a 100 confirmed cases. There are some counties still in single digits.
The predicted surge in new cases has not yet been seen after many had predicted it might happen. That prediction was based on Georgia’s effective R (infection rate) factor. It was still above one when the restrictions were lifted. Once again the models have been shown to be wrong. This is encouraging for other states (South Carolina, Florida, Texas, etc.) that are moving forward to re-open.
Governor Kemp has shown the way. Kemp believes that most of his residents do not need a lot of adult supervision from the state. This is unlike several other states, (Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia to name a few) who believe they need to control all aspects of their residents’ lives.
It’s time to get back to work.
