Photograph by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images
On Friday, several metro Atlanta businesses began to open their doors, while the mayor condemned the governor’s actions. Here’s your Saturday morning update:
• There are now 22,491 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Georgia. 899 people have died. 4,322 have been hospitalized. 107,176 tests have been conducted. [GA Dept. of Public Health]
• Friday was the first day that salons, barbershops, bowling alleys, movie theaters, gyms, and a few other businesses were allowed to re-open under Governor Brian Kemp’s executive order. The AJC did a fairly extensive roundup of businesses that opened across the metro area, including Peachtree Battle Barbershop in Buckhead, Three-13 Salon in Marietta, Slangin Ink tattoo parlor in Chamblee, and Lush Nail Bar in Sandy Springs, among others. Van Michael Salon, which has locations across Atlanta, is asking clients to sign wavers. National gym chain LA Fitness reversed their previous decision to open on May 1 and has not yet set an opening date. [AJC]
• Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms appeared on Good Morning America Friday morning to condemn Governor Kemp’s executive order. “To open up our state today is irresponsible. Simply because we have hospital beds and we aren’t at capacity doesn’t mean we need to work to fill them up,” she said. She advised Georgians to stay home and said, “What I believe is that there are some who are willing to sacrifice lives for the sake of the economy, and that is unacceptable.” [WSB-TV]
• Finding personal protective equipment (PPE) is just one of the potential hurdles businesses opting to open may face. Restaurant workers and those working at hair salons, barbershops, tattoo parlors, and similar closer-contact facilities, are required to wear masks while working, but many retailers are still sold out of them, the AJC found. Some owners are turning to the internet to try to find what they need—one Buckhead salon owner who is not yet opening up told the AJC she spent $900 on face masks and $430 on masks. [AJC]
• Chef Hugh Acheson, who we interviewed last month about how restaurants would struggle in the pandemic, penned an op-ed for the Washington Post about why he will not be opening his restaurants on Monday. [WaPo]
• In Cobb County, the Silver Comet, Noonday Creek, Bob Callen trails will re-open today, along with some park spaces. Playgrounds and basketball courts will remain closed. [11 Alive]
• The AJC has another useful article on understanding data, this one explaining the different ways that organizations are charting and predicting coronavirus data. It notes that the IHME model, the most widely-cited model, has been “relatively inaccurate” so far, but that it shows our death rate dropping to zero in June and predicts June 22 as the best time to begin easing social distancing. Another model from Los Alamos National Laboratory has been more accurate for Georgia, and it predicts that Georgia has likely already past its peak in cases. (That said, another peak can still happen.) It predicts 2,300 Georgians will have died by June. Columbia University also has a model that forecasts the spread of the disease. [AJC]
