As Georgia began to re-open non-essential businesses like movie theaters and hair salons, tens of thousands of people from neighboring states poured in, potentially risking a further spread of the coronavirus just as researchers had warned.
According to research by University of Maryland scientists, 62,441 out of state visitors poured into Georgia after April 24 when many businesses re-opened. The biggest proportion of those visitors, 17%, came from Florida, which has been the most cautious in allowing businesses to re-open.
The uptick in travel — 13% over the average from previous weeks —is worrying, and yet totally unsurprising, to scientists studying the outbreak.
"It's exactly the kind of effect we've been worried about," Maegan Fitzpatrick, who studies infectious diseases at the University, told the Washington Post. "This is not an unpredictable outcome with businesses opening in one location and people going to seek services there."
In some ways, the slow opening of business in Georgia, Texas, and several other states is a litmus test for the United States as a whole. If protocols are lifted too early, it could lead to thousands of preventable deaths, epidemiological models show.
