Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, discouraged city residents from going out and about on Friday, the day Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has allowed some businesses in his state to reopen during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“So the governor says people can go to these institutions. What are you telling people in your city about whether they should?” CNN anchor John Berman asked Bottoms.
“Very simply: Stay home. Nothing has changed,” the mayor replied. “People are still getting infected. People are still dying.”
“We don’t have a cure to this virus,” she continued. “The only thing that’s helped us is that we have stayed apart from one another and I’m simply asking people to continue to do that.”
On Friday, salons, gyms and several other businesses in Georgia deemed non-essential by the federal government’s guidelines on social distancing will open up shop again with Kemp’s authorization.
Georgia state leaders have pushed back against the governor’s decision, saying that it was too dangerous to allow people to go back to work and that he did not tell them about the plan prior to announcing it.
Even President Donald Trump said he didn’t support Kemp on the situation.
“I’m going to let him make his decision,” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “But I told him I totally disagree.”
Watch Bottoms below:
Atlanta mayor tells Georgians to stay home despite Kemp's reopening of non-essential businesses. pic.twitter.com/wnsm2BBNqm
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) April 24, 2020
