Why Georgia’s reopening hasn’t led to a surge in coronavirus cases (so far)
Georgia was the first state to start reopening its economy after shutting down due to the coronavirus pandemic. When the shelter-in-place order expired on April 30, a lot of experts and much of the public worried about the worst: a sustained spike in Covid-19 cases that would overwhelm emergency rooms and lead to a surge in deaths.
Yet more than a month later, the worst hasn’t arrived.
Even as the state has increased its testing capacity, boosting its ability to pick up new coronavirus cases, the total of daily new cases has remained relatively flat, despite some ups and downs. The state isn’t getting significantly better — dozens of Covid-19 deaths are still reported each day in Georgia — but it doesn’t seem to be getting much worse either.