The Washington Post reports:

Sheryl Means already has lost so much to the invisible virus burning through her hometown. Her mother and her aunt died within days of each other. Her sister has been on a ventilator for weeks in a hospital miles away, and there are no visitors allowed in the covid-19 isolation unit. She has this tightness in her chest, and she’s scared she might be next.

But Means can’t get a test. Even now, six weeks into a national emergency, with the death toll still climbing in southwest Georgia, and her kin sick from the novel coronavirus. Even though, as a home health-care worker, she’s at high risk for exposure. She isn’t displaying enough symptoms to get the required doctor’s referral.

If she wanted, though, she could get her hair and nails done, since the state’s governor invited some businesses to reopen Friday, despite local leaders, public health experts and residents like Means insisting Georgia isn’t ready.

They fear the restart will spike new infections, particularly in the southwest region, with some of the highest death rates in the nation. In these small, interconnected towns, where everyone seems to know everyone else, each death reverberates.

“It’s crazy to open these businesses,” said Means, a 51-year-old Damascus resident. “Which do you want us to do: Be safe or be sorry? Live or die?” [Continue reading…]