Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms thinks the message is finally starting to resonate in the African American community specifically that “this virus is treating us very differently.” According to Mayor Bottoms it was evidentiary to her early-on when concern about COVID-19 started to develop. “I could rattle off ten to fifteen people who I knew personally that had tested positive.”
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health there are 14,578 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the state. There have been 524 deaths related to the respiratory illness. Fulton County has 1,812 cases, with 60 deaths. DeKalb County has 1,144 coronavirus cases and 15 deaths. Both counties have very high African American populations.
Georgia race and ethnicity statistics by DPH indicate that approximately 3,422 cases and 273 deaths have been in persons identifying as Black or African American.
Mayor Bottoms called into V103’s Big Tigger Show Tuesday afternoon to talk about the state of the city at this stage of sheltering in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Her biggest concern after about a month into the pandemic according to Bottoms is that “there’s a complacency that will begin to set in because we’ll begin to think it’s okay to start to venture out and to go back to life as normal.” Bottoms stresses “It’s not normal. People in our community are dying at much higher rates.”
“We have got to stop gathering” at the parks says Bottoms. As for a timetable at getting back to normal, Bottoms says that she would be “stunned” if it’s before the first week in May.
A bright spot for Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency is spending time at home with her family. She continues to stress to residents how necessary it is for them to do the same. “The message has not changed” says Bottoms, “you gotta stay home to save lives.”