Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, has tested positive for the coronavirus, she announced Monday afternoon. Bottoms, 50, said she has not experienced any symptoms of the virus.
“COVID-19 has literally hit home. I have had NO symptoms and have tested positive,” she tweeted Monday.
Bottoms, in an appearance on MSNBC, said the positive test result was a “shock” and she thought to get tested because her husband had been sleeping more than usual.
“It leaves me for a loss of words because I think it really speaks to how contagious this virus is. We’ve taken all the precautions that you can possibly take. I have no idea when and where we were exposed,” she said.
As of Monday, there have been more than 97,000 confirmed virus cases in Georgia, with over 2,870 deaths and over 11,900 hospitalizations, according to the state’s Department of Public Health.
Bottoms has been among several names being considered as Joe Biden’s potential running mate.
Shortly afterwards, Bottoms said she remained “stunned” at the news during an interview with Chris Cuomo (who has recovered from the illness) on his CNN show, Cuomo Prime Time.
“My husband and I don’t have underlying health conditions, so prayerfully, this will be as bad as it gets for us, but this is scary,” she said. “We’ve been very careful. Even my kids have been careful, so I’m stunned.”
Bottoms added that she felt like she was simply experiencing her usual allergies, rather than known coronavirus symptoms. “My symptoms have been like my seasonal allergy symptoms — I’ve had a headache the past few days and just a little dry cough, but that’s not unusual because I have that with my allergies, which are just about year-round in Atlanta,” she explained.
She went on to say that her husband had “been asleep since Thursday,” and was experiencing, “Cuomo dreams,” — similar to what Cuomo described having while he was ill with the virus. Meanwhile, two more of her children need to be tested, as does her mother, who she saw over the weekend.
While Bottoms said she remains committed to helping Atlanta overcome the pandemic — noting that the city’s Black and brown communities are getting hit hard and that she’s considering mandatory mask wearing — for now, she’s also in “mommy mode,” as she grapples with the illness.
“I’m trying to figure out what this means,” she said. “I was trying to fix something to eat for one of my kids, and he’s like, ‘Don’t touch my food.’ My kids scattered when they heard that we were positive, so I probably won’t see them for the next 14 days. Everybody is yelling across the house. So, that’s the other side of this — I’m a mayor, but I’m also a mom and a wife, so I’ve got to wrap my brain around what exactly this means and how I keep the rest of my kids safe.”
