A federal judge in the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday declared a mistrial in a commercial case after a COVID-19 outbreak led to 15 participants testing positive for the coronavirus (article available here). A new trial will be scheduled for sometime in 2021. The trial had been previously suspended last week after "multiple people," at least two people —a juror and a lawyer—tested positive for Covid. Previous coverage available here. The court asked participants to get tested and provide the court with results as soon as they were received.
The number of positive COVID-19 results increased from "at least seven" on Friday to thirteen, then fifteen.
The judge apologized to the attorneys and also announced that he was pushing all trials scheduled for Deember to the new year. "I'm not doing any more jury trials between now and December," he said. "We are planning on resuming, assuming what the numbers look like, in January."