Atlanta Mayor Enacting Face Mask Mandate After Diagnosis

Two days after announcing she has tested positive for coronavirus, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Wednesday she's instituting a face mask mandate in her city, even after Gov. Brian Kemp refused to enact one. 

"Other cities had taken the approach that they are going to defy the governor's executive order," Bottoms said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "Savannah has done it, some other cities have done it, and Atlanta's going to do it today because the fact of the matter is that COVID-19 is wreaking havoc on our cities, specifically Black and brown communities with higher death rates."

She added that Atlanta and other cities and states will "never be able to reopen our schools and our economy if we don't take some responsibility for what we can do as leaders to make sure that people aren't exposed to this virus."

Bottoms said that she feels "okay," after her positive test, and that she feels like she's suffering from seasonal allergies. However, she said she's frustrated because she and her household had to wait eight days to get the results of their tests. 

"For eight days, we are operating in our household as if everything is normal," she said. "We then retested, and then by the time we retested, three of us had tested positive."

She said she's "doing the best she can" with the virus, and that it helps that Atlanta's City Hall has been closed since March. 

However, Bottoms said that during the eight days of waiting, she was near several people, including the fire and police chiefs and her senior team. 

She added that it does not seem like a good idea to resume schools this fall, as the city's COVID numbers are still spiraling. 

"What about our teachers and the faculty and staff and the people who have to come in and clean up the building?" she said. "Our children are often asymptomatic. My child was asymptomatic."

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