Atlanta, Georgia has been uncharacteristically subdued for weeks, with few cars driving its long-congested highways.
Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesATLANTA—Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s order allowing some nonessential businesses to reopen as soon as Friday is being met with skepticism by many residents and business owners here, while some outside the metro area welcomed the effort to restart the stalled economy.
Georgia’s rollback of restrictions was the broadest yet in the South, where governors are testing how far and how quickly to relax stay-at-home orders that were put in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
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Gov. Kemp, a Republican, announced Monday hair salons, barbershops, tattoo parlors, massage therapists’ premises and gyms would be allowed to open as soon as Friday if they followed state social-distancing and sanitation guidelines. Dine-in restaurants, private social clubs and theaters would be allowed to reopen beginning April 27, while bars, nightclubs and amusement parks would remain closed.
Some small-business owners said they were caught by surprise by Mr. Kemp’s decision and would need more than a few days’ notice to ramp up. Others said they would stay closed until it was clear the public-health crisis had passed.
“It’s putting economics before lives,” said Diane Fall, owner of Maxim Barbers in suburban Atlanta. “[Mr. Kemp’s] putting it out there like he’s doing us a favor, but I’d rather be alive than run my business right now.”
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cautioned this week that the virus must be under control before the economy can recover.
An infection control team from the Georgia Army National Guard disinfects a senior care facility in Marietta, Georgia on Monday.
Photo: erik s lesser/ShutterstockGov. Kemp said his decision, which also included allowing hospitals to resume elective surgeries, was in compliance with revised White House guidelines for reopening the economy issued last week.
“We can’t have shelter-in-place forever and we can’t have how businesses operated last fall, or even a month ago,” Gov. Kemp’s spokesman Cody Hall said. “We have to find a way to a happy medium.”
Under Georgia’s new rules, businesses now being allowed to reopen must adhere to ongoing sanitation requirements and strict social-distancing guidelines, including limited seated capacity for restaurants. State law-enforcement workers and other state officials have been deputized to enforce those rules, Mr. Hall said.
The reopening plan seemed jarring in Atlanta, a bustling metro region of close to six million people that accounts for nearly 60% of the state’s population. The area has been uncharacteristically subdued for weeks, with few cars driving its long-congested highways and few planes flying to and from the world’s busiest airport.
In the hip East Atlanta neighborhood on Tuesday, there were few people out on a picture-perfect spring day. Of those who were, many wore masks.
“I am absolutely incredulous that our governor is doing this,” said Alan Marsh, owner of Park Pet Supply Inc. His revenue is off by a third and he only has seven of his previous 11 employees, but he said he would continue to fulfill online and phone orders only.
He is also asking employees not to go to restaurants or shops despite the governor’s go-ahead. “If you do and I find out about it, I’ll take you off the schedule,” he said he was going to tell them.
In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster, a Republican, allowed access to public beaches starting this week but gave municipalities the ability to override his decision. Many of them, including Myrtle Beach, are taking him up on it. The state allowed retail shops to open Monday but not salons or restaurant dining rooms.
Under Georgia’s new rules, businesses must adhere to sanitation requirements and social-distancing guidelines. Here, The Plaza Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia on April 12.
Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesLocal officials in Florida have been taking steps toward loosening restrictions, including opening some beaches. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis asked for recommendations by Friday from his coronavirus task force on how to reopen the state.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, said it is too soon to reopen nonessential businesses, which he said should wait until the state has adequate testing and contract-tracing capacity and enough protective gear for health-care workers.
“Easing restrictions in our state without enough masks, gowns and gloves is like setting off on a 3-day camping trip with enough food for just one night,” he said in a recent tweet.
Some business owners in Georgia said they would reopen Friday, though they were uncertain whether there would be demand. Most movie theaters are owned by corporate chains, which have said they are closed for the foreseeable future.
David Rutherford, co-owner of three bowling alleys in small-town Georgia, said he was cautiously optimistic about opening the largest of the three as soon as possible.
State law enforcement workers and other state officials have been deputized to enforce the new rules in Georgia. Here, a couple walked through Piedmont Park in Atlanta on April 12.
Photo: Kevin C. Cox/Getty ImagesGold Cup Bowling in Warner Robins, near Robins Air Force Base, has 50 lanes and a 12-foot-wide concourse, Mr. Rutherford said. The plan is to open the bowling alley by reservation only, with bowlers at every third lane. No food would be sold, but drinks could be ordered over an intercom and delivered to tables behind the bowlers.
“We’re going to test this out and see,” Mr. Rutherford said. “All it takes is one or two facilities that don’t handle it well, and we’ll all be shut back down again.”
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In rural Georgia, which has been hard hit by the shutdown but where support for Gov. Kemp is strong, many people expressed relief that businesses would be opening, tempered with uncertainty about the timing.
“They’ve got to be open again,” said Larry Teague, a 70-year-old retiree who lives near Jackson, Ga. “People have to pay their bills.”
Caitlin Harvey, a 23-year-old waitress at Waffle House also near Jackson, Ga., is working two days a week for the restaurant’s takeout business. She relies on tips for her income and has mixed feelings about the idea that her restaurant might open full-time next week.
“I’ll be glad to be bringing in more money,” she said. “I still have this lingering feeling that any one of us at work can catch it.”
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Write to Cameron McWhirter at cameron.mcwhirter@wsj.com and Valerie Bauerlein at valerie.bauerlein@wsj.com
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