2 More Hell's Kitchen Schools Closed By Coronavirus '2-Case Rule'

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — Two public school buildings in Hell's Kitchen became the latest to shut down temporarily this week due to coronavirus cases, as the controversial rule requiring such closures remains in place.

Beacon High School and P.S. 51 Elias Howe — which sit across the street from each other on West 44th Street — both closed for eight days starting Monday, according to the city's map of active closures.

They were among the 203 schools citywide that were under extended closures as of Thursday, due to Department of Education policies.

Under the city's two-case rule, an entire school campus must shut down if two or more cases are confirmed without any clear links to one another.

That rule has come under scrutiny as the school year has dragged on, and as the city's pledge to review the policy has failed to produce any changes weeks after it was announced.

Last week, City Council members pressed DOE leaders to say when they would change the policy, but the leaders offered only a timeline of "soon."

"Schools aren't really 'open' if they close every other day," Brooklyn Councilmember Brad Lander tweeted last week. "We need a test and trace-driven method of controlling spread, not arbitrary closures from two unconnected cases in schools [with] thousands of students."

Lander was one of a bipartisan group of lawmakers that pressed the department for updates on when the policy might be revised. Under the two-case rule, 2,358 schools across the five boroughs have faced extended closures while 811 have been shut down for 24 hours since September.

Disease experts have called the rule "conservative" and said the city should consider scrapping numerical thresholds altogether in favor of school-by-school analysis, according to Chalkbeat. Teacher union leaders, meanwhile, have stood behind the requirement, saying it is too soon to relax coronavirus precautions.

Patch reporter Anna Quinn contributed.

Related coverage: Hell's Kitchen School Closed By COVID Amid Push To Change Rules