It's too early to look at Georgia's coronavirus cases and declare that reopening works

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• Georgia lifted its shelter-in-place order April 30, and state public health officials have since released optimistic-looking data on new coronavirus cases and deaths.
• But it's still too early to draw the conclusion that reopening states won't worsen COVID-19 outbreaks.
• Georgia's Department of Public Health has faced criticism over publishing inaccurate or misleading data in recent weeks, and Gov. Brian Kemp's office has apologized over the mishaps.
• But even with accurate data, there can be a weeks-long delay between the time when a person contracts the virus, when they get a positive test result, and when that test result is actually reported to state health authorities.
• Experts have said that coronavirus case counts don't show what the outbreaks look like in realtime — they're a snapshot of what the outbreaks looked like two weeks earlier.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Just over two weeks after Georgia ended its shelter-in-place order, preliminary data from public health officials on the number of new coronavirus cases in the state has prompted some to claim victory over the outbreak.

Though it's tempting to celebrate any optimistic-looking data as a sign that reopening states can help local economies bounce back without worsening COVID-19 outbreaks, it's still very early to draw such a conclusion.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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See Also:

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• Fox News coronavirus coverage dropped by 20% as the network shifted to 'Obamagate' and hosts focused on anti-lockdown stories
• A barber who defied New York's stay-at-home order to give haircuts tested positive for COVID-19

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