Coronavirus Cases Shutter UES's Robert Wagner Middle School

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Robert F. Wagner Middle School became the latest Upper East Side school to be temporarily closed due to coronavirus cases after multiple positive tests were confirmed there starting late last month.

The first case in the Wagner building at 220 East 76th St. was confirmed Oct. 28, prompting a classroom to be closed for two weeks. Additional cases were confirmed in separate classrooms on Monday, forcing those rooms to be closed through Nov. 20, according to the DOE's map of active cases.

The school building itself was closed starting Monday and will stay shut for two weeks, through Nov. 12, according to the DOE's map. (Initially, the map indicated the school would only be closed through Tuesday.)

The department's safety protocols force school buildings to close pending an investigation when cases are confirmed in separate classrooms within a week of each other. The classrooms themselves must remain closed for 14 days.

Wagner recently served as the Upper East Side's beleaguered early voting site, hosting the most assigned voters of any location in New York and forcing thousands to wait in line for hours earlier this month.

New York is in the midst of an alarming uptick in coronavirus cases, according to city officials, who are warning of a possible second wave.

That increase is threatening to shutter New York's public schools. This week, the city's positivity rate, which measures how many coronavirus tests came back positive, climbed to an average of 2.31 percent, creeping closer to the 3-percent mark that would prompt the city to close all public schools.

"This is our last chance right now to stop a second wave," Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a Tuesday news conference. "If we aren't able to stop it, there will be clearly lots of consequences that will remind us too much of where we've been before."

Maya Kaufman contributed to this report.

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