Georgia governor sues Atlanta mayor and city council over mask mandate

‘A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing’

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has sued Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and the city council to block the mayor’s mandate requiring residents to wear masks in public to prevent transmitting the coronavirus.

The move comes a day after the Republican governor signed an executive order that explicitly prohibits cities in his state from setting their own rules on face coverings despite rising infections. A dozen cities across the state have pledged to defy his order while the state is in the grip of a public health crisis.

“3,104 Georgians have died and I and my family are amongst the [106,000] who tested positive,” the mayor said on Twitter. “Meanwhile, I have been sued by [Governor Kemp] for a mask mandate. A better use of taxpayer money would be to expand testing and contact tracing.”

The mayor announced that she and her husband had tested positive for Covid-19 earlier this month, though she did not have any symptoms.

Health officials have confirmed more than 131,00 cases of the virus since the onset of the outbreak, including 3,441 new cases and 13 deaths that were reported on Thursday, the fourth straight day in which more than 3,300 new cases were identified. The state’s seven-day average is 3,507, its highest yet.

A record-high 2,841 patients are currently hospitalised with Covid-19 symptoms, according to the Georgia Department of Public Health, and 84 per cent of the state’s intensive care unit beds are occupied.

Governor Kemp’s lawsuit challenges the mayor’s push to rollback citywide business openings as well as a mask requirement that he casts as “void and unenforceable”.

“This lawsuit is on behalf of the Atlanta business owners and their hardworking employees who are struggling to survive during these difficult times,” according to a statement from the governor. “These men and women are doing their very best to put food on the table for their families while local elected officials shutter businesses and undermine economic growth.”

In a press conference on Thursday, the mayor said she is “not afraid of the city being sued” and is willing to put the city’s “policies up against anyone’s, any day of the week.”

Governor Kemp has encouraged residents to wear masks in public but has not required them.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention recommends face coverings “as a simple barrier to help prevent respiratory droplets from travelling into the air and onto other people when the person wearing the cloth face covering coughs, sneezes, talks, or raises their voice”.

“This is called source control,” according to the agency. ”The use of cloth face coverings is particularly important in settings where people are close to each other or where social distancing is difficult to maintain.”

After weeks of resistance from Donald Trump and Republican governors following his lead, officials in most states have allowed jurisdictions to establish their own rules on face coverings or, in come cases, issued mandates statewide.

Across the South, Republican governors in Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee have allowed local officials to set mask rules, while Republican governors in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas have issued mandates for most or all of the counties in their states.

Democrat governors in Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina also are requiring residents to wear face coverings in public.