Atlanta mayor believes reopening would test willingness to sacrifice lives

As Georgia begins to reopen under orders from Republican Governor Brian Kemp, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said on Tuesday she believed he was testing the “willingness to sacrifice lives” for the sake of economic recovery.

“Nothing has changed about Covid-19. This is still a highly contagious virus that is hitting our community extremely hard and especially communities of color,” Bottoms told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer this afternoon.

“What it really feels like to me, anyway, is that there is this testing of the waters and willingness to sacrifice people for the sake of our economy.”

The mayor went on to say people should try to consider the risk in terms of their own loved ones.

“I am not willing to sacrifice my mother who is a senior and certainly not my children, all of who are asthmatic,” Bottoms said.

Bottoms’ remarks came as Kemp has been among the fiercest governors in the U.S. in rolling back social distancing rules for businesses in the state, enabling restaurants to offer dine-in service as of April 27, as long as eateries put in place measures to avoid staff and guest exposure to coronavirus, CNN reported.