A federal appeals court has upheld the mask requirement for Knox County Schools in Tennessee.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit on Monday denied the School Board's request to pause the mask requirement while the issue is debated in court, the Knoxville News Sentinel reported.
U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer ruled in September that the school system must adopt a mask mandate to help protect children with health problems and thus more susceptible to the coronavirus.
Knox County Schools argued that virtual classes are a reasonable accommodation, but children attend at home and must be supervised.
"Like the district court, we are not persuaded that virtual schooling is a reasonable alternative to universal masking," the appeals court wrote.
The full appeal of the case will be heard at a later date, the newspaper reported.
Knox County adopted a mask mandate during the 2020-21 school year but chose not to this year despite covid-19 numbers remaining high.
Public health agencies say indoor mask-wearing is a key prevention tool.
FLORIDA TRIALS ON HOLD
As covid cases surge in South Florida, criminal courts in Miami-Dade County have paused jury trials through Dec. 31.
The decision was made "based on the rising number of COVID cases," Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Andrea Ricker Wolfson, the chief administrative judge, wrote in an email Sunday to officials in the local justice system. "Thank you and please stay safe."
The pause, which took effect Monday, comes as Miami-Dade's criminal justice system is dealing with outbreaks.
The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office has reported that 29 employees have tested positive for covid since Dec. 13. The Public Defender's Office has reported 18 positive cases since Dec. 15.
It was not immediately clear whether jury trials in Miami-Dade civil court will be affected. As of Tuesday, the 11th Judicial Circuit had not made any announcements about updated safety protocols.
The impact of the decision is likely to be limited, as December is generally slow for trials because of the holidays.
ATLANTA MASKS UP
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms on Tuesday reinstated a mask requirement in stores and other businesses.
The move came as infections in Georgia continued to sprint upward, rising to nearly 6,000 cases detected Tuesday. The state's seven-day average of infections has more than doubled in less than a week.
Bottoms cited guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for her decision.
"The CDC has designated Fulton and DeKalb counties as areas of high transmission for the COVID-19 virus," the mayor said in a statement. "Given this recent surge across the Atlanta area, and based upon the counsel from public health professionals, I am reinstating the citywide mask mandate."
People who fail to wear a mask indoors could face a fine of $50 for a second offense. Bottoms had just lifted the mask mandate last month.
Republican Gov. Brian Kemp sued Atlanta over its mask mandate and restrictions on businesses that Bottoms recommended in 2020 after he lifted statewide business restrictions. Kemp later dropped the suit, but he has maintained that mask and vaccine mandates are undesirable.
"These mandates only create division and unnecessarily divert critical resources," Kemp spokesperson Katie Byrd said Tuesday. "Gov. Kemp is fully vaccinated and boosted, and he will continue to urge Georgians to talk with their doctor about the benefits of getting the vaccine or receiving their booster shot. Ultimately, he feels that we must trust our citizens to do what's right for themselves and their families."
Kemp stood by his position as his own Department of Public Health renewed recommendations for people to get vaccinated and seek a booster dose, wear masks in public indoor settings, avoid crowded and poorly ventilated spaces and keep 6 feet away from people outside their own households.
Georgia officials also urged people to get tested if they display symptoms, are exposed to someone with covid-19, or if they are going to gather indoors with others.
Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr also announced Georgia had joined a lawsuit with 23 other states seeking to strike down a federal requirement for Head Start workers to get vaccinated and wear masks. It's the fourth such suit Georgia has filed or joined against federal mandates in recent weeks.
The number of patients hospitalized with covid-19 has risen almost 50% in Georgia in the past month, with nearly 1,250 patients hospitalized statewide Tuesday.
Some hospitals told WSB-TV on Tuesday that they are filling up. Patients were waiting in emergency rooms for beds at Grady Memorial Hospital in downtown Atlanta and Northeast Georgia Health System in Gainesville. More than a dozen other hospitals were turning away ambulances, according to a state tracking system.
Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer of Grady Memorial, said patient growth is "exponential."
"When you have so many people getting infected, the number of people requiring hospitalization is going up significantly," Jansen said.
Bottoms' new mask requirement comes after Atlanta Mayor-elect Andre Dickens said a rapid test Monday showed he had covid-19. Dickens, who said he was fully vaccinated, was isolating, although he reported only mild symptoms.
NEW YORK KEEPS RUNNING
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he's committed to keeping the city open as it grapples with a huge spike in coronavirus cases.
He said Tuesday that New York can't see schools and businesses close again as they did when covid-19 first hit the city in 2020.
"Adamantly I feel this: No more shutdowns. We've been through them," de Blasio said at a virtual news conference Tuesday. "They were devastating. We can't go through it again."
De Blasio, in the waning days of his term as mayor, will decide by Christmas whether the annual New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square will go on as planned.
De Blasio's successor, Eric Adams, postponed his inauguration ceremony, scheduled for Jan. 1 indoors at Brooklyn's Kings Theatre.
The mayor-elect issued a statement Tuesday saying that the ceremony would be rescheduled for a later date "to prioritize" the health of attendees, staff and reporters.
"It is clear that our city is facing a formidable opponent in the omicron variant of COVID-19, and that the spike in cases presents a serious risk to public health," Adams said.
Adams will still take over as mayor on Jan. 1. His spokesperson, Evan Thies, said it would take a lot for the mayor-elect to shut down New York City again.
"He believes that we can balance the priorities of public health and keeping New York open in a safe and responsible way as we aggressively address the omicron threat with more vaccinations, boosters and testing," Thies said.
Information for this article was contributed by Michelle L. Price, Michael R. Sisak and additional staff members of The Associated Press; and by David Ovalle of the Miami Herald (TNS).