Florida parents sue governor for school mask ban

A GROUP of parents in Florida is suing Ron Desantis, the state’s governor, for preventing schools from introducing mask mandates when children return to the classroom in September.

It comes amid a surge in Covid cases in the state and across America, with the number of new infections hitting 100,000 a day – the highest level in six months.

The parents say “students will become sick and potentially die as a result of the failure to follow the mandatory masking requirements” set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Earlier this summer, the CDC said that only unvaccinated children needed masks at school. But in the face of the delta variant, it changed its guidance on July 27, advising that everyone should wear masks in the classroom.

Mr Desantis issued an executive order banning mask mandates on July 30, calling the CDC rules “unscientific and inconsistent”.

Some 23,903 new infections were recorded in the sunshine state on Friday – the third-record breaking day in a week.

On Saturday, Florida recorded 13,747 hospitalisations related to Covid-19, with at least 2,753 patients in intensive care units statewide, accounting for 43 per cent of beds available in intensive care.

Mr Desantis, seen as a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, branded media scrutiny as “fearmongering” and said: “Our hospitals are open for business. We’re not shutting down. We’re gonna have schools open.”

The US is seeing a sharp rise in cases with the arrival of the delta variant. On June 22 there were 11,299 new cases, but this weekend that had soared to 107,143.

Hospital admissions are up by 40 per cent from the previous week while the sevenday average for daily new deaths also increased over the past two weeks from about 270 deaths per day to nearly 500 a day on Friday.

Joe Biden, the US president, has declared the latest wave as “the pandemic of the unvaccinated” with half the population still not double jabbed despite vaccine availability across the nation.

More than 97 per cent of people admitted to hospital with the virus had not been vaccinated, said Dr Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director.