Kathmandu, Aug. 25: 

The 30-day notice period following a U.S. moratorium on evictions has expired, leaving 12 million tenants at risk. Researchers in Hong Kong find that in rare cases, a person can get reinfected.

Representative Jenniffer González-Colón, Puerto Rico’s nonvoting delegate to Congress, and several other officials, including the island’s House speaker and Senate majority leader, tested positive for the coronavirus, a week after a primary there drew politicians to many indoor events.

A judge struck down a state order requiring most Florida schools to open for in-person instruction.

A Florida judge ruled on Monday that the state’s requirement that public schools open their classrooms for in-person instruction violates the Florida constitution because it “arbitrarily disregards safety” and denies local school boards the ability to decide when students can safely return.

The ruling was a victory for the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s second-largest teachers’ union, and one of its affiliates, the Florida Education Association. The unions sued Gov. Ron DeSantis and Richard Corcoran, the education commissioner, last month in the first lawsuit of its kind in the country.

The state’s order required that school districts give students the option to go back to school in person by Aug. 31 or risk losing crucial state funding. An exception was made only for Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which have been the hardest hit by the coronavirus and plan to start the school year online.

“The districts have no meaningful alternative,” Judge Charles W. Dodson of the Leon County Circuit Court wrote of the rest of the state’s schools. “If an individual school district chooses safety, that is, delaying the start of schools until it individually determines it is safe to do so for its county, it risks losing state funding, even though every student is being taught.”

Later Monday, the state filed an appeal to the ruling, prompting an immediate stay.

“This fight has been, and will continue to be, about giving every parent, every teacher and every student a choice, regardless of what educational option they choose,” Mr. Corcoran said in a statement.

In Tampa, the state’s reopening order prevented the Hillsborough County school district from starting the school year with four weeks of online-only instruction, as the school board wanted to do. The Hillsborough board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, although no vote is expected, a district spokeswoman said. The superintendent, Addison Davis, said in a statement after the ruling that the school system continued to plan to start classes on Aug. 31 with a choice of in-person or online instruction.

During a three-day hearing last week, the unions presented testimony from public health experts and teachers concerned about risking their health. One teacher said he would quit to avoid exposure to the virus. Another, who is quadriplegic, said he could not afford to leave his job, though his doctor had warned him that Covid-19 would threaten his life.

“In a pandemic, none of these things are great victories, but it is a reprieve for human life,” said Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers. “It is a pushback on reckless disregard of human life. It is a pushback on politics overtaking safety and the science and the well-being of communities.”

Tracking the Coronavirus ›

United States ›On Aug. 2314-day changeTrendNew cases32,340-22%New deaths446-5%

source– Nytimes