New COVID-19 cases double in Georgia, hospitalizations triple

New COVID cases appear to be on the brink of spiraling out of control in Georgia.

When you look at why that happened, the bickering among officials now does not paint a picture of confidence in slowing the spread.

If Georgians still had any doubt about the worsening pandemic in the state, recent COVID-19 numbers are a reason for concern. New daily cases have doubled and hospitalizations tripled, in the last month alone.

"We are seeing an increase in covid in communities throughout the state," says Georgia public health commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey.

Georgia is shattering single-day records with around 3,000 new cases reported almost every day in the last week. But the state's leaders have turned to bickering and finger-pointing amid the growing crisis.

"I think the problem here is that Georgia has been acting somewhat psychotic," said Savannah Mayor Van Johnson.

"If you look at when it started, I think there are several reasons for that. Number one was the demonstrations. Number two, because of the demonstrations, that sent a message to people that, 'hey it's all right to get out again'," said Gov. Brian Kemp.

In April, when state health officials believed numbers had plateaued and Georgia became one of the first states to reopen, public health experts warned the consequences could be dire. On May 21, nearly one month after reopening the state, Governor Kemp was cautiously optimistic.

"I'm proud of what we accomplished over the last several weeks, but we can not rest on our laurels," he said then.

But in the two months since that press conference, things have only gotten worse.

"It's this perfect storm of factors. Under-testing, early reopening, and lack of enforcement of masking and physical-distancing policies have really compounded the pandemic that is playing out in Georgia," said Dr. Thomas Tsai with Harvard's TH Chan School of Public Health.

Professor Tsai says the way in which Georgia state health officials interpreted COVID data may have given a false sense of confidence and poorly informed policy decisions like reopening earlier than recommended. Georgia's health department backdated its numbers of new COVID cases to the onset of symptoms.

The Georgia Department of Public Health defended the practice to CNN, calling it "the traditional way to look at data during an outbreak," adding that "Georgia has been reporting this data the same way since the beginning of the pandemic."

While it says less about when infections are occurring, presenting data by date of reporting is important to have the most current understanding of the case burden we are facing each day," says Nancy Nydam, Director of Communications for the Georgia Department of Public Health.

But Harvard researchers say backdating the cases created unforced errors and painted a rosier picture than reality.

"So essentially it results potentially in a decline of cases in every single week because the positive cases keep getting back-dated to when the symptoms first began," says Dr. Tsai.

CNN asked Governor Kemp to respond to any questions about any potential mistakes made in the early decision-making. Kemp declined an interview, but as for how things stand now, his office admits that current graphs 'don't look complimentary.' They asked for any other questions we had to be directed to the Georgia state health department.

On July 21, Kemp launched a new campaign encouraging Georgians to wear masks, but public health experts warn it may take more than that.

"You basically have to go back to flattening the curve and getting your arms around the pandemic, which includes wearing masks, following the best guidelines around physical-distancing, and in cases where it is getting out control, a local shutdown," says Dr. Tsai.

Kemp is encouraging all Georgians to wear masks, but he's also involved in a lawsuit to stop Atlanta's mayor from requiring it.