Maryland will reschedule jury trials starting on Wednesday as a result of COVID-19 concerns, according to a Monday court order.
“The emergence of the highly contagious Delta variant and now the substantially more contagious Omicron variant and the attendant risk posed to those who are vaccinated and those who have not completed the vaccination process require the return to a more restrictive Phase of emergency operations,” Joseph M. Getty, chief judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, wrote in his order on Monday.
As a result of these concerns, the judge said jury trials scheduled to start between Dec. 29 and Feb. 8 will be postponed, and jury trials that have already begun will be permitted to "proceed to conclusion."
Among other mitigation efforts, "more flexible alternative work arrangements for certain employees" will be allowed, and courts will be "authorized and may conduct remote proceedings to the greatest extent possible," Getty added.
Maryland's Department of Health reported 6,574 new cases in the last 24 hours. The state currently has a positive test rate of nearly 18 percent.
The surge in infections comes as the omicron variant becomes the dominant strain of COVID-19 cases in the U.S., accounting for about 59 percent of all U.S. infections as of Dec. 25.
Though the variant is highly contagious, studies have indicated that omicron cases are more mild and less likely to cause hospitalization than the delta variant.
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