Hell's Kitchen School Building Closed Due To Coronavirus Cases

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — A Hell's Kitchen school building was shut down on Monday after multiple coronavirus cases were reported there starting over the weekend, according to the Department of Education.

On Saturday, P.S. 111 Adolph S. Ochs — on West 53rd Street near 10th Avenue — was forced to close a classroom for two weeks, as DOE policy requires when at least one case is confirmed in any class.

Another classroom in the same school was closed Monday due to at least one more positive test, triggering an automatic 24-hour closure of the school building starting Monday, according to the city's map of active COVID-19 closures.

The city requires a school building to close when there are at least two cases from different classrooms from an activity or exposure outside of school, or when the link between them cannot be determined.

P.S. 111 was one of 17 school buildings around the city that were closed due to positive tests as of Monday, according to the DOE map.

Through Friday, nearly 700 public school students and staff had tested positive for COVID-19 since students began returning for in-person classes in late September, according to a state dashboard. The city's own testing regimen for public schools has yielded a surprisingly low number of positive tests, which officials have touted as evidence that reopening has gone smoothly so far.

Check the full map of active cases here.

Anna Quinn contributed to this report.