Georgia Residents Torn Between Desire to Return to Work and Fear of Coronavirus Resurgence

Rebecca Hardin is tired of stay-at-home restrictions that weeks ago shut down the Atlanta hair salon where she works, but she wondered if an order by the state’s governor allowing some businesses to reopen this week was a little premature.

Hardin, a 47-year-old hairdresser who also manages Salon Red in Atlanta’s Candler Park neighborhood, said she needs to get back to work as soon as possible. Even so, she worried that the state is risking a fresh surge of coronavirus infections and loss of life.

“I want to get back to work, but I’m worried it’s too soon,” she said. “Friday seems awfully early when we’re facing a deadly disease that has no cure or vaccine.”

Hardin was one of a handful of Atlantans who spoke with Reuters after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s order allowing salons, gyms, bowling alleys, barbershops, tattoo shops and other businesses to reopen as of Friday. Next week, dine-in restaurants and movie theaters will be able to reopen as well.

Despite criticism from public health experts and many local officials, Kemp has described the limited reopening as a measured approach that balances the need to get the state’s ecomony back in gear with the need to assure the safety of the public’s health.

Hardin said it was still uncertain whether Salon Red would reopen Friday.

“What if I catch it and don’t know I have it and give it to my 8-year-old, or my own parents, let alone my clients,” Hardin said. “I don’t know if it’s worth it to just open up now. It’s just hair.”

Kemp was among one of the last governors in the United States to impose the “stay-at-home” and social-distancing orders that now cover nearly all of the U.S. population.

A bipartisan majority of Americans want to maintain “shelter at home” orders, even though it has devastated the U.S. economy, But the number of people, mostly Republicans, who want a reopening is increasing, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.

Under his new rules, Kemp said that businesses that are reopening still must enforce social distancing and screen workers for fevers and respiratory illnesses to minimize the risk of transmitting the virus. Elderly people who are “medically fragile” should stay at home at least through mid-May, the governor said.