Astoria Public School Closes Amid COVID-19 Outbreak

ASTORIA, QUEENS — An Astoria public school was forced to temporarily close on Wednesday amid a COVID-19 outbreak, making it the second COVID-related school closure in NYC this academic year.

P.S. 166, an elementary school located at 33-09 35th Avenue, will be remote for the next 10 days and resume in-person classes on Nov. 22, according to the Department of Education's COVID case map. Gothamist first reported this story.

At least 22 students and three staff have tested positive at P.S. 166 in the last seven days, an uptick that accounts for nearly 70 percent of the total case count at the school since in-person classes began this year, data shows.

“This is scary," Karyn Pavich, a parent to three children at P.S. 166, told Gothamist. She added that "a lot" of her friends have kept their kids home during the last week, when the onslaught of COVID diagnoses began.

Earlier this week nearly half of the school's 58 classrooms were facing some form of COVID-related closure, Gothamist reported.

At least 11 classrooms were completely closed due to COVID, and a dozen other classrooms were partially closed, meaning that some COVID-positive people weren't in class, but vaccinated children who were exposed to the virus were still learning in-person, data shows.

Classes were held on Tuesday, but during the afternoon P.S. 166's principal, Jessica Geller, sent an email to parents informing them that the school would be temporarily stopping in-person learning as of Wednesday, Gothamist reported. On Tuesday, an additional three students at the elementary school tested positive for COVID, records show.

“This school would have been closed two weeks ago,” under last year’s criteria, Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers told Gothamist. “We know the spread is coming from inside that building.”

Under the city's current policies, schools will only be closed this year when there is evidence of "widespread transmission," as determined by the Health Department and Department of Education. Last year, however, school buildings were shuttered after two or four cases were connected to in-school transmission.

P.S. 166's closure comes about a week after federal officials authorized the two-dose Pfizer vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds.

Since then, the demand for vaccination at NYC public schools — where the city has been administering shots to kids — has exceeded expectations, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Tuesday.

P.S. 166 was slated to host one of those vaccine clinics on Wednesday afternoon, but a Department of Education spokesperson told PIX11 News that the event will be rescheduled for when the school reopens.

At the start of this academic year, P.S. 79 in East Harlem became the first COVID-related school closure in NYC after 19 coronavirus cases were linked to a school orientation event, Patch reported.