52 people in Georgia died on Monday of coronavirus but Governor Brian Kemp has just announced his state’s gyms and fitness centers, massage parlors, theaters, restaurants, nail and hair salons, body art studios, and other businesses statewide can reopen in the coming days. Local towns and cities are banned from countermanding his direction.
Kemp says churches were never directed to close and are free to open as they wish.
“Bars, nightclubs, operators of amusement park rides & live performance venues will remain closed,” Gov. Kemp, a highly-controversial Republican, says.
Kemp specifically referred to companies losing “millions of dollars a day” as one of the reasons he is ordering the state to re-open for business.
President Donald Trump has been pushing states to re-open quickly, in the hopes an improving economy will help his re-election campaign.
Kemp was the subject of scorn and outrage just weeks ago when he falsely tried to suggest the CDC had just learned people with coronavirus who are not showing symptoms are infecting people in what is called “asymptomatic transmission.” The Georgia governor used that false framing to defend why he was among the last to order residents to stay at home.
Now, many on social media are angry, propelling “Kemp” to the number two top trending item on Twitter.