The city has temporarily closed two Queens public high schools on Friday after both reported a second case of the novel coronavirus among staffers in a seven day period, the Department of Education announced.
Beach Channel Educational Campus in Far Rockaway and P.S. 90 Horace Mann in Richmond Hill reported their second COVID-19 cases on Thursday, according to DOE officials, launching and investigation and a 24-hour-long shut down of the buildings.
It is unclear when the infected staffers at Beach Channel Educational Campus and P.S. 90 took their COVID-19 tests.
Under DOE guidelines, schools will be shut down if more than one person not connected by classroom or student cohort reports testing positive for the virus within a seven day period. So far, four public schools have had to temporarily close since buildings reopened for teachers on Sept. 8.
The first school to close its doors was P.S. 811X—the Academy for Career and Living Skill—a district 75 school in the Bronx three days after buildings reopened. District 75 schools serve the city’s most disabled students.
There are now at least 61 school staffers have reported testing positive for COVID-19 out of 19,000 DOE school-based employees who have received rapid tests for the virus, according to the DOE.
Here is of school buildings with confirmed cases confirmed by the DOE. Number one through 21 had a confirmed case, with the infected staffer reporting to the school building.
Numbers 22 through 35 are buildings with a confirmed case but the COVID-19 staffer did not return to their school building.
- K139 PS 139 (OPENED 9/17)
- Q280 PS 280
- X127 IS 127
- K234 IS 234
- K056 PS 56
- X131 IS 131
- K224 PS 224
- Q315 PS 315
- Q465 Far Rockaway Educational Campus
- K420 Franklin K Lane Educational Campus
- K226 PS 226
- M041 PS 41
- Q007 PS7
- M165 PS 165
- Q410 Beach Channel Educational Campus (CLOSED)
- Q276 The William Wordsworth Educational Complex
- K405 Midwood HS
- M146 PS 146
- M475 Health Professions HS
- K005 PS 5 Brooklyn
- Q090 PS 90 (CLOSED)
- M043 Adam Clayton Powell Educational Complex
- M873 Manhattan Village Academy
- R059 The Harbor View School
- K026 PS 26
- X026 PS 396
- MAYQ Harlem Hospital
- Q440 Forest Hills HS
- M191 PS 191
- M125 PS 125
- K071 IS 71
- K445 New Utrecht HS
- X082 IS 232
- Q227 IS 227
- K281 IS 281
Some parents and school staff worry about the DOE’s current school closure policy arguing that buildings should close after their first reported positive case to prevent potential spreading of the virus. Earlier this week, 13 school staffers at Queens High School for Information, Research and Technology— one of the four schools located at Far Rockaway Educational Campus–were asked to quarantine after a colleague tested positive for the virus on Tuesday, according to a source connected to the school.
School community members were not notified in writing of the positive case until late Wednesday, the source said. But when they were, staffers was also instructed to return to work in person on Thursday since an investigation had already been completed, all close contacts had been reached and the building had been properly disinfected.
“I don’t know how that’s possible since they never closed the building,” the source said. “There were people working in the building on Tuesday, people were in the building on Wednesday.”
