- Stacey Abrams said after reopening, Georgia’s COVID-19 rate went up 40%.
- In fact, the number of cases fell 12% compared with the same period before reopening.
In an interview with Mother Jones, Abrams said if she were in the governor’s mansion today, she would have handled the COVID-19 crisis totally differently.
"I wouldn’t have led Georgia to be one of the last states to shut down, and we certainly wouldn’t have been one of the first to reopen," Abrams said in a
May 7 interview. "Since the reopening of the state, we’ve seen our COVID rate skyrocket by 40%."
Abrams’ statistic is wrong.
Under Kemp, Georgia was one of the first states to reopen businesses.
Between
April 24 and April 27, restaurants, gyms, beauty parlors and a number of other kinds of businesses began to welcome customers, so long as they followed rules to keep patrons separated and took other measures to prevent infection.
In the 12 days before April 24, when Kemp began easing restrictions, Georgia had a total of 9,695 confirmed coronavirus cases.
In the 12 days after (which coincides with Abrams’ interview), Georgia reported about 1,100 fewer confirmed cases, 8,549.
Overall, comparing the two time periods, cases in Georgia decreased 12% after the reopening. They didn’t increase 40%.