GOP Senator Lindsey Graham warns that Georgia might be re-opening its economy 'too fast too soon'

• Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned that Georgia's push to re-open parts of its economy despite rising COVID-19 cases may be moving "too fast" and could hurt his home state, too.
• "We respect Georgia's right to determine its own fate, but we are all in this together," Graham tweeted. "What happens in Georgia will impact us in South Carolina."
• Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is allowing business establishments including hair and nail salons, bowling alleys, and gyms to re-open on Friday, followed by restaurants and movie theaters on Monday.
• Elected officials, public health experts, and economists warn that a push to re-open businesses too soon could end up backfiring by worsening the outbreak and the ensuing economic damage.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham warned that Georgia's push to re-open parts of its economy despite rising COVID-19 cases may be moving "too fast" and could hurt the neighboring state of South Carolina, which he represents.

"I support what South Carolina Governor [Henry McMaster] announced yesterday -- a small reopening of our state's economy with a focus on social distancing. I worry that our friends and neighbors in Georgia are going too fast too soon," Graham tweeted on Tuesday, warning that Georgia's decisions will inherently affect South Carolina too.

—Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) April 21, 2020

Nearly two months into the US' COVID-19 outbreak, the US is suffering unprecedented economic damage as states have shuttered down business establishments and ordered citizens to stay at home. Currently, approximately 95% of Americans are under some kind of stay-at-home order.

In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster announced on Monday that the state is releasing guidelines allowing some clothing, furniture, book, and flower shops to re-open for business in graduated phases as long as their owners enforce social distancing.

McMaster said the businesses must only allow five customers for 1,000 square feet of the space or 20% of the total space, require customers to stay six feet apart, and follow other sanitation requirements set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is going much further, allowing a slew of business establishments including hair and nail salons, bowling alleys, gyms, and massage therapy centers to re-open on Friday, followed by restaurants and movie theaters on Monday.

Georgia currently has over 20,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including over 3,800 patients hospitalized, and 818 deaths as of Tuesday. The state reported over 1,200 new cases of the virus on Monday alone, and over 700 news on Tuesday.

Kemp said that businesses must follow "minimum basic operations" of safety, including "screening workers for fever and respiratory illness, enhancing workplace sanitation, wearing gloves and masks if appropriate, separating workspaces by at least 6 feet, and teleworking where at all possible, and implementing staggered shifts."

But given the sheer number of business establishments under the order, it's unclear how the state plans to enforce those guidelines, especially in places like hair and nail salons that necessarily involve people being within six feet and touching each other.

As states itch to start re-opening businesses to help struggling Americans, elected officials like Graham, public health experts, and economists warn that a push to re-open businesses too soon could end up seriously backfiring by worsening the outbreak and only intensifying the economic damage states have already seen.

Dr. Margaret Hamburg, who served as the commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration under the Obama administration from 2009 to 2015, warned in a Tuesday appearance on NBC's "Today" that re-opening too quickly could lead to "explosive spread" of the disease.

"Some of these places are not even meeting the minimum threshold criteria that were put out in the Trump White House Coronavirus Task Force Guidance. I'm worried that we don't know enough about how the virus has penetrated these communities and their states," she said. "We don't know about the possibility for explosive spread of the virus as people go back into these social gathering settings: the workplace, schools, whatever."

And on the economic front, a recent report from Deutsche Bank said that the prolonged and painful pandemic could cause the US' debt-to-GDP ratio to reach 130% in this decade, and even soar as high as 150% by 2050.

Read the original article on Business Insider