Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Tests Positive For Coronavirus

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has been identified as a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, announced Monday that she and her family have tested positive for COVID-19.

“COVID-19 has literally hit home,” she tweeted.

Bottoms later told MSNBC that she and her family decided to get tested for the coronavirus because her husband “literally has been sleeping since Thursday, which is just not like him.” She said she hadn’t had any symptoms.

“We were tested two weeks ago, we were negative, and our results came back positive today,” she said.

Bottoms said she believes her contracting the virus underscores just how contagious it is.

“We’ve taken all of the precautions that you can possibly take,” she said. “We wear masks, we’re very thoughtful about washing our hands. I have no idea of when and where we were exposed.”

The mayor will have to isolate herself for 10 days following Monday’s positive test, as long as she continues to not have symptoms, according to the state’s coronavirus guidelines. She told MSNBC she’ll work out of her home office for the next two weeks due to her positive test result.

Bottoms’ announcement comes as she addresses both the ongoing pandemic in her city, which has some of the highest numbers of cases in the state, and ongoing anti-racism and police brutality protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May.

She held a news conference on Sunday to address recent shootings in her city, including one that killed 8-year-old Secoriea Turner near where Atlanta police killed Rayshard Brooks in June.

“This random wild, wild West, shoot ’em up because you can ― it has got to stop,” Bottoms said.

The mayor wore a mask during much of the presser, but she took off the facial covering while speaking about Secoriea’s death at a microphone that was later used by interim Police Chief Rodney Bryant, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.