Coronavirus Cases Close 3 Schools In Bed-Stuy This Week: DOE

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN —Three schools in Bed-Stuy have been temporarily shut down this week due to coronavirus cases detected in the building, according to the Department of Education.

P.S. 56 on Gates Avenue, I.S. 271 on Herkimer Street and P.S. 23 on Willoughby Avenue were all marked closed Wednesday given at least two cases of coronavirus in each building, according to the Department of Education's map of active cases.

Both P.S. 56 and I.S. 271 are facing extended closures while P.S. 23 will only be closed on Wednesday, according to the map. The cases at P.S. 23 include on in the Carter G. Woodson school and another in the Brooklyn Charter School, which shares a campus.

One of the schools, I.S. 271, just returned to in-person class last week along with the rest of the city's middle schools, which had been fully remote since November.

According to the Department of Education's guidelines, school buildings must automatically close pending an investigation when at least two COVID-19 cases linked to each other are confirmed in separate classrooms. The closure is extended when the infections occurred outside of school or a link between them cannot be determined.

The newly-closed Bed-Stuy schools join a fourth school in the neighborhood, I.S. 258, that started an extended closure last week.

The schools are among nearly 200 across the five boroughs that were under coronavirus closures. There were 96 facing an extended closure and 68 under a 24-hour shut down as of Wednesday, according to the map.