Jury trials won’t resume immediately in the new year either at Omaha’s Hruska Federal Courthouse.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska has continued jury trials set to begin through Jan. 31 – expanding the window previously set at Jan. 3.

Chief U.S. District Judge John M. Gerrard issued General Order No. 2020-16 last week.

 “The local and national emergency occasioned by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing, and while case numbers have improved somewhat in Nebraska since a mid-November peak, they still remain exceptionally high – higher, in fact, than when the Court entered General Order 2020-14 continuing jury trials in November,” Gerrard wrote in the order. “And many public health officials are cautioning that the situation may worsen in coming weeks, when a post-Thanksgiving surge in infection rates is exacerbated by a post-Christmas surge.”

The order notes that the period of time from Nov. 2 through Jan. 31 will be excluded from calculation required by the Speedy Trial Act. The court will vacate, extend or amend the order by that time.