Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who announced this week that she and two of her family members tested positive for COVID-19, said she has received the results for the rest of her family.
In a Wednesday morning tweet, the mayor wrote: “We FINALLY received our test results taken 8 days before. One person in my house was positive then. By the time we tested again, 1 week later, 3 of us had COVID. If we had known sooner, we would have immediately quarantined. Perhaps the National Guard can help with testing too.”
We FINALLY received our test results taken 8 days before. One person in my house was positive then. By the time we tested again, 1 week later, 3 of us had COVID. If we had known sooner, we would have immediately quarantined. Perhaps the National Guard can help with testing too.
— Keisha Lance Bottoms (@KeishaBottoms) July 8, 2020
When she revealed her positive diagnosis Monday, Bottoms said her husband and one of their children tested positive, too.
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Since then, her family’s results have all come back. The mayor’s mother tested negative, as did her three other children, she told MSNBC on Thursday morning.
On her family and coronavirus, @KeishaBottoms: "we've all now been tested. My mother is negative. And three of my other children are negative as well." #AMRstaff
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) July 9, 2020
Bottoms announced her diagnosis one day after hosting a Sunday news conference filled with a room full of police, fire Chief Randall Slaughter, three Atlanta City Council members, media and family members of 8-year-old shooting victim Secoriea Turner.
She had been tested twice before, she said during an editorial board meeting with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Wednesday afternoon. At the time of the third test, she said, no one in her family was exhibiting symptoms.
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Bottoms told MSNBC on Monday that she got tested because her husband had been sleeping a lot since last week.
“Which is just not like him,” she said.
Speaking with the news network again on Thursday, Bottoms said her husband lost more than 20 pounds in less than a week, “and he’s still sleeping quite a bit.”
On her family and coronavirus, @KeishaBottoms: "I'm having normal symptoms that go along with my seasonal allergies. My child is also asymptomatic. My husband, on the other hand, has lost 20 pounds in less than a week and he's still sleeping quite a bit." #AMRstaff
— Andrea Mitchell (@mitchellreports) July 9, 2020
In another tweet, the mayor indicated she was tested after attending a funeral.
“Proactive testing, period,” Bottoms said. “No one in my house had symptoms then and no reason to quarantine.”
She wore a mask during Sunday's news conference but removed it to make lengthy remarks about Turner's death. The child was shot Saturday near the torched Wendy's that had been occupied by armed demonstrators in the aftermath of Rayshard Brooks' police killing last month.
Interim police Chief Rodney Bryant also spoke at the microphone.
Slaughter has opted to self-quarantine pending the results of a COVID-19 test.
MORE: Atlanta fire chief in quarantine, awaiting COVID-19 test results
“There were so many things that I, personally, would have done differently had I known there was a positive test result in my house,” Bottoms told MSNBC.
Rarely do I highlight silliness, but this is egregious. I was tested after attending a funeral, in the same way I was tested after attending a protest. Proactive testing, period. No one in my house had symptoms then and no reason to quarantine. pic.twitter.com/y1LWqfP9Sf
— Keisha Lance Bottoms (@KeishaBottoms) July 8, 2020
The news conference scenario can be low-risk if proper precautions are taken, according to Emory University infectious disease expert Dr. Marybeth Sexton. She said it was unlikely most attendees of the mayor’s news conference were exposed as long as they were wearing masks.
The CDC defines exposure as at least 15 minutes of face-to-face contact with a COVID-19 carrier when neither party is wearing a mask.
According to Sexton, it is also unlikely that the interim police chief could have been infected from speaking into the same microphone as Bottoms.
“Surface contamination is thought to be rare,” Sexton said. “You would have to put your hand on the microphone and then in your mouth.”
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