Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Tests Positive for Covid-19

ATLANTA (CN) — Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who has been named as a potential pick for the Democratic vice presidential nomination, announced Monday evening that she has tested positive for Covid-19.

“COVID-19 has literally hit home. I have had NO symptoms and have tested positive,” Bottoms tweeted. 

In an interview with MSNBC, the mayor said that both she and her husband received positive test results Monday. Bottoms said they decided to get tested because her husband was sleeping more than usual.

“It’s a shock,” she said. “It leaves me for a loss for words.”

Bottoms said she received a negative test result two weeks ago and does not know when or where she or her husband were exposed to the virus.

“It really speaks to how contagious this virus is. We’ve taken all of the precautions that you can possibly take,” Bottoms said.

The day before Bottoms announced her status on Twitter, she hosted a news conference to address last weekend’s sharp uptick in gun violence in Atlanta. Police, media, two Atlanta city council members and the family members of an 8-year-old shooting victim were in attendance in the conference room.

Bottoms did not wear a mask while delivering her remarks.

According to the Georgia Department of Health, 97,064 Georgians have tested positive for Covid-19. Many of those cases are clustered in the metro Atlanta area, with Fulton County reporting over 8,800 cases. 

Coronavirus cases have been on the rise around the country, with the nationwide total exceeding 2.9 million on Monday, according to Johns Hopkins University. 

Bottoms, a first-term mayor, has risen into the national spotlight during the city’s reckoning with both racial injustice and the pandemic and has emerged as a potential running mate for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. A vocal and early supporter of Biden, Bottoms endorsed his presidential bid last year. She reaffirmed her support for him in June, calling him “the best choice to take back the White House and restore the soul of America.”

Follow @KaylaGoggin_CNS

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