2 Queens Schools Closed After 2nd Coronavirus Cases Reported: DOE

QUEENS, NY — The city has temporarily closed two school buildings after each reported a second confirmed COVID-19 case among its staff, Department of Education officials said Friday.

Beach Channel Educational Campus in Rockaway Park and P.S. 90 Horace Mann in Richmond Hill each reported their second confirmed cases of the virus Thursday, prompting the city to close the two buildings for an initial 24-hour period to determine whether the cases are connected.

In all four cases, the staffers who contracted the virus had reported to their respective school buildings, the Department of Education said in a news release. Close contacts of each staffer are being quarantined.

Under Department of Education policy, a school will be closed if there are two confirmed cases within seven days that are not linked to a particular classroom or group inside a school. One confirmed case will not prompt a school closure.

Another 15 public schools in Queens have reported one confirmed case of COVID-19 among their staff since educators returned to school buildings on Sept. 8, according to Department of Education data.

That number does not include two Queens schools — Forest Hills High School and I.S. 227 — with staffers who contracted the virus but had not been in the school buildings.

P.S. 139 in Brooklyn, which was closed Wednesday after two coronavirus cases were reported there, has since reopened, officials said.

"While we continue to navigate the realities of a pandemic, there will be positive cases," the Department of Education said in a statement earlier this week. "We are putting people's health above everything else by quickly identifying and isolating positive cases to prevent further transmission."

Of the nearly 19,000 educators who have made use of the city's expedited coronavirus testing option for school staffers, 61 have tested positive — a rate of 0.33 percent.

All schools will have mandatory monthly random coronavirus testing starting in October.