Far Rockaway school is the third "gold standard" school to shut down because of COVID infections

Chalkbeat 

Village Academy in the Far Rockaway section of Queens will close Thursday after health department officials determined COVID-19 is spreading in the school, according to the education department.

It is the second New York City public school closed this week, and the third closure this school year.

As of Wednesday, city data show there had been nine partial classroom closures at the middle school, which shares a building with other schools. The school reported 14 cases among students over the past week and two among staff, according to state data.

Students will transition to remote learning for the next 10 days and can return to in-person learning on Nov. 22. Any student without a device can pick one up tomorrow at the school.

The co-located schools will remain open.

“We do not hesitate to take action to keep school communities safe and our multi-layered approach to safety has kept our positivity rate extremely low,” Department of Education spokesperson Katie O’Hanlon said in an email. “All staff at DOE are vaccinated and all students at Village Academy have access to a device to ensure live, continuous learning.”

The closure was announced on the same day that P.S. 166 was shuttered. The school, which sits on the border of Long Island City and Astoria in Queens, saw 22 students and three staff members test positive since Nov. 3.

The fact that there have been so few closures this year, “speaks volumes to all the precautions that were taken to create a safe environment,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a press conference on Wednesday.

What was that about vaccinations again de Blasio?

 PIX 11 News

 

Oh, I've been waiting to use this and to use it this soon is the chef's kiss

how's that key to NYC working y'all

de Blasio's homeless shelter policy cited for spreading COVID

 

NY Daily News

 The number of single adults living in homeless shelters across the five boroughs reached an all-time high during the pandemic, likely contributing to a disproportionate spike in coronavirus deaths among that population, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by the Coalition for the Homeless advocacy group and provided exclusively to the Daily News before its Wednesday release, found that the number of single adults sleeping in New York City shelters rose precipitously throughout last year, reaching a new record of 20,822 on average every night this past February.

Through the same reporting period, the COVID-19 death rate for sheltered single adults was 54% higher than the citywide average, the study says.

 Giselle Routhier, a policy director at the Coalition for the Homeless, said many homeless single adults suffer from underlying health conditions and acknowledged that may have partially contributed to the high coronavirus death rate.

But Routhier also said the record-high shelter occupancy played a part, especially since single homeless adults are typically placed in congregate, dorm-style shelters where social distancing is difficult.

“That means more people were at risk,” Routhier said in an interview. “We saw how that impacted them in these really devastating mortality numbers.”

COVID cases rise again in Katz's office, new strain found in Queens resident from undisclosed location and the city is out of vaccines

 

Patch

 A cluster of coronavirus cases among employees of the Queens District Attorney's Office, who continue to work in-person at reduced capacity, has forced colleagues into quarantine and has the agency warning employees that "it is best practice to assume that everyone has been exposed," as one administrator put it.

At least 10 employees with the Queens District Attorney's Office have reported testing positive for COVID-19 since Friday, according to emails from Chief of Staff Camille Chin-Kee-Fatt that were reviewed by Patch.

The cases include four employees who work in felony trial bureau two and the appeals and detective bureaus, according to an email sent to employees Wednesday. The divisions where the other six work were not disclosed.

Employees, at least some of whom have been working in-person since October, are now being urged to limit contact with others and conduct meetings virtually.

"I think it is best practice to assume that everyone has been exposed and act accordingly by wearing face coverings and limiting any in-person contact," Chin-Kee-Fatt wrote in an email Monday. "We must limit our contact at this time as much as we can, which includes meeting and IT/Facilities repairs."

LIC Post

A Queens resident has tested positive for the highly-transmissible variant of COVID-19, city officials announced Wednesday.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a news conference that the variant, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, had been detected in two New York City residents. One resident is from Queens, the other from Manhattan.

One of them had recently traveled to the U.K., although officials did not say which one. Furthermore, officials declined to identify the neighborhoods where the residents live, citing privacy concerns.

Dr. Dave Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, said that both people had been diagnosed with coronavirus in late December, and genetic sequencing showed that their infections had been from the U.K. variant “within the past few hours.”

Patch 

 More COVID-19 vaccine shots are going into more New Yorkers' arms at more places this week than any time since doses first arrived. There's only one problem: New York City could run out of vaccines next week.

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday warned that the city's cache of vaccines may not be enough to keep up with supply.

The federal government and manufacturers need to step up and send more to the city, he said.

"I confirmed with our health care team yesterday that even with the normal supplies that we expect to have delivered next week that we will run out of vaccine at some point next week, unless we get a major new resupply," he said.

We could run out of #COVID19 vaccines by the end of next week if we don't get a major shipment IMMEDIATELY.

The Federal government needs to STOP holding back supplies.

RELEASE as many doses as possible so that we can finally get out of this crisis. https://t.co/TUYxM7BgaD
— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) January 13, 2021

It took only one day

  

1010 WINS

  A Queens school has closed due to the coronavirus for the first time this year, officials announced Thursday.

The John F. Kennedy Jr. School in Elmhurst became the first city school to prompt a 14-day quarantine protocol after two unrelated coronavirus cases were confirmed among staff or students.

The DOE could not immediately disclosed who was infected.

According to the Department of Education, action would be taken when two or more COVID-19 infections were confirmed at the same school with no links between the infected students.

“We hope to return to the building on Wednesday, October 13,” a letter from school officials said.

Grade and High School starts soon, and the D.O.E. is still obfuscating faculty COVID-19 infections

 

 

NY Post

 The number of NYC schools where staffers have tested positive for COVID-19 ballooned to 150, including 108 where infected staffers came into contact with colleagues.

DOE officials again refused to disclose the total number of  teachers and administrators who have been quarantined for 14 days since reporting to buildings on Sept. 8

At IS 51 Edwin Markham in Staten Island, about 70 staffers — more than the 50 previously admitted — are now forced to isolate until Oct. 1.,  teachers told The Post.

“It was a s–t show,” said a source familiar with the coronavirus catastrophe. About half the faculty and all administrators have been exiled. “No one is running the school.”

After word first leaked about the massive quarantine, the DOE blamed the IS 51 staff, saying they “disregarded social distancing protocol.”

But Principal Nicholas Mele snapped back in a statement Friday calling the accusation “completely untrue.”

“We followed all appropriate social distancing and meeting guidelines,” Mele wrote.

Two sources familiar with the mess said a teacher who tested positive last weekend had worked in the building the previous week before starting to feel ill — and being sent home.

The city’s COVID-19 contact tracers then learned the infected teacher had joined a group of 43 staffers who met in the cafeteria, as well as smaller meetings in classrooms.

“It wasn’t until I spoke with the DOE and the contact tracers . . . did I learn that any meeting lasting more than 30 minutes would require everyone in the room with the identified person with a positive test to quarantine even if all safety protocols were followed, which they were,” Mele wrote.

In response to Mele’s denial, the DOE stuck to its stance that safety protocols were violated. “Based on the answers we received, it was determined social distancing was not reliably followed at all times,” said spokesman Nathaniel Styer. He did not elaborate.

Regardless of the reason, some quarantined teachers are worried about getting sick or infecting their family members.

This is just like what happened back in March before the contagion started to spread.