You’re laughing at Georgia, again, aren’t you? It happens a lot. I know my uncle in Colorado got a kick out of Gov. Brian Kemp’s announcement last week that the state would start to reopen businesses previously closed by COVID-19, starting with bowling alleys, gyms, tattoo parlors and salons. Give me a foot massage or give me death? Welcome to Georgia!
“Dying for cute toes” would be a hilarious state motto if the situation here weren’t also so serious. With 1,000 deaths and more than 24,000 confirmed cases as of Monday night, Georgia has not been the hardest hit state in the country. But we haven’t avoided our own tragedies, either. Dougherty County in rural Georgia has been one of the country’s most severe hot spots, with hospitals overwhelmed after two family funerals spawned hundreds more cases and deaths there.
And those are just the cases we know about. A shortage of supplies in Georgia restricted testing until the week of April 13 to just front-line workers, the medically fragile and people in long-term care facilities. Georgia still ranks 36th in the nation for the number of tests completed per capita, leaving leaders and the public with no way to know whether the spread of the virus is getting better, worse or staying the same since the governor issued a limited shelter-in-place order in March.
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