Georgia Governor Brian Kemp finally instituted a stay-at-home order Wednesday after weeks of dragging his feet, telling reporters he was taking the action because he just learned that people without symptoms can spread the novel coronavirus—a fact that has been widely known both to officials and the general public for weeks. “Finding out that this virus is now transmitting before people see signs, so what we’ve been telling people from directives from the CDC for weeks now that if you start feeling bad, stay home...those individuals could’ve been infecting people before they ever felt bad,” the Republican said. “But we didn’t know that until the last 24 hours,” said Kemp.

It’s unclear how Kemp—an ally of Donald Trump, who has also displayed a stunning ignorance about the pandemic currently paralyzing the nation—managed to never encounter this basic fact about the novel coronavirus, which he described Wednesday as a “revelation” and “game-changer.”

But Kemp’s refusal to issue a shelter-in-place order until now may have already put his state behind in its efforts to slow the spread of the virus. While New York remains the American epicenter of the pandemic, far outpacing other states in confirmed cases with more than 84,000 and deaths with 2,220, Georgia is quickly becoming a hotspot in its own right; with 4,748 confirmed COVID-19 cases, the state has seen its number triple over the past week. While Kemp had earlier closed bars and restaurants, limited large public gatherings, and canceled public school through the end of April, he and his team had downplayed the crisis; Tim Fleming, his chief of staff, accused municipal governments in the state of “overreacting” to coronavirus just last week.

But after apparently learning about the concept of asymptomatic carriers—part of the reason coronavirus has spread so easily—Kemp reversed course. It’s better late than never, perhaps, but nevertheless infuriating that it took so long. “Kemp will have to live with these facts: He was slow to act in a state where the statistics on this pandemic are among the worst in the nation; his delayed action almost certainly means things will be worse than they might have been in Georgia,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution wrote in an editorial Wednesday. “Finally, Gov. Kemp has acted to try and improve [experts’] dire predictions. Let’s hope that his actions haven’t come too late.”

More Great Stories From Vanity Fair

— Trump Awakens to the COVID-19 Danger

— Could Wall Street’s Coronavirus Tsunami Get Worse?

— Jared Kushner Told Trump the Coronavirus Was Fake News

— Tucker Carlson on How He Brought His Coronavirus Message to Mar-a-Lago

— The 12 Most Insane Moments From Trump’s National Emergency Presser

— How a QAnon Coronavirus Conspiracy About Oprah Went Viral

— From the Archive: Inside the Week of Hurricane Katrina, Revealing the Foolishness, Fear, and Politics That Turned a Natural Disaster Into a Man-Made Catastrophe

Looking for more? Sign up for our daily Hive newsletter and never miss a story.