Georgia Governor Brian Kemp admitted that he was not actually aware that asymptomatic people could spread coronavirus to others until recently.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp confessed that he had only just recently learned that people who haven’t shown symptoms of coronavirus could still spread the disease to others. During a press conference on Wednesday, Kemp revealed that he had just been informed earlier this week “that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs,” despite medical professionals stressing this possibility for quite awhile.
“So what we’ve been telling people from directives from the CDC for weeks now,” he continued, “that if you start feeling bad stay home, those individuals could have been infecting people before they ever felt bad.” However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had definitely already made it abundantly clear that the incubation period for coronavirus is anywhere between 2-4 days, meaning asymptomatic carriers could absolutely unknowingly spread the virus to others. While the CDC only explicitly stated that were capable of infecting others on Monday (March 30th), that “asymptomatic transmission” was a real threat way back in January.
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“Well we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours,” Kemp confessed. “This is a game-changer for us.” Kemp initiated a shelter-in-place order for the state of Georgia during this press conference, which will go into effect on Friday (April 3rd) and last until at least April 13th. He explained that Georgia is preparing hospitals for an expected increase of coronavirus-infected patients, as the state’s numbers rose to 4,700 confirmed cases and 154 deaths this week.
