South Gwinnett News

A spike in COVID-19 cases has prompted the Atlanta city government to reinstate an indoor mask mandate.

FOX 5 reported that Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms issued an executive order to address the omicron variant.

Bottoms said in a statement obtained by the station that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated Fulton and DeKalb counties “as areas of high transmission for the COVID-19 virus.”

"Given this recent surge across the Atlanta area, and based upon the counsel from public health professionals, I am reinstating the citywide mask mandate,” the mayor said in the statement. "We are watching the data daily and will continue to engage experts for guidance on how best to provide for the safety and wellbeing of our communities.”

A tweet from the city’s official Twitter account dated Dec. 21 announced that aside from the return of the indoor mask rule, Atlanta has been placed back in the Yellow Zone.

Georgia as a whole has seen a jump in COVID-19 hospitalizations since at least the start of December.

According to FOX 5, hospitalizations across the Peach State have risen 50%, with the number of infections reported continuing to increase.

The station reported that Georgia’s largest county, Fulton County, has reported 344 cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks, with DeKalb County trailing at 248 cases per 100,000 residents.

Longtime Atlanta bookstore proprietor Frank Reiss has been fortunate enough to not have any of his employees come down with the coronavirus but concern grew when relatives and friends of theirs were infected.

"We were shorthanded during the hardest days," Reiss said, 11Alive reported. "We lost two full-time, very important employees who weren't sick. But they had to stay away because family members had tested positive and they just couldn't take any chance."

Atlanta’s NBC affiliate reported that the owner of A Cappella Books requires shoppers to don mask inside his business.