COVID Cases Doubled In One Day At This LIC School, DOE Map Shows

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — COVID cases doubled in one day at a Long Island City school, mirroring a citywide uptick in coronavirus cases as the omicron variant rapidly spreads through New York.

At least 11 students at P.S. 111 Jacob Blackwell, a K-8 school located at 37-15 13th Street, tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday, Dec. 17th, meaning the school's total cases count for this year doubled in one day — from eight to 16, data shows.

An investigation into these cases by the Department of Education and the Department of Health, which was the second this week, is slated to end today; if the agencies don't find evidence of "in-school [coronavirus] spread," which is the city's litmus test for closing a school, then P.S. 111 will remain open.

Patch called P.S. 111 on Friday morning, but a representative said that they could not speak with reporters.

The uptick in cases at P.S. 111 comes as the omicron variant spreads through New York at "full force," officials said, reportedly doubling the citywide COVID positivity rate in three days.

Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has led the fight for in-person learning throughout the pandemic (and is potentially poised to run for governor on an education platform), says schools are less impacted by the COVID spike than the rest of the city, adding that he will ramp up staffing if necessary.

"Schools are markedly in better shape by far than the rest of the city, they're much safer than any other place in the city right now," said de Blasio during an omicron-focused briefing on Wednesday.

The mayor pointed out that while hundreds of classrooms are temporarily remote, very few of the city's 1,600 schools are fully closed — the number of fully closed schools increased from one to three on Thursday, records show, to include two schools in the Bronx and one in southeast Queens.

At P.S. 111, 11 classrooms have closed this week amid the recent spate of cases. Another 10 classrooms in the school partially closed this week — four as of Friday — due to COVID-related exposures, data shows, meaning that some COVID-positive people weren't in class, but vaccinated children who were exposed to the virus were still learning in-person. All but one of the fully and partially closed classrooms are slated to reopen next week.

Despite the citywide, and schoolwide, uptick in cases, officials worked this week to dispel widely circulating rumors about an impending systemwide shutdown.

In an interview with WNYC, soon-to-be NYC Schools Chancellor, David Banks, was asked about if and when the city's schools would go remote amid another COVID spike.

He said that while remote learning worked for a small number of students, and he generally wants to keep it as an option that's on the table, he is focused on keeping children learning in classrooms right now.

"The best thing for kids by and large is for them to be in school, and everything we do will be to make sure that we're as close to that as possible," he said.

Banks added that he's paying "close attention" to the rising number of citywide cases, but did not specify what a shutdown threshold would be.

Related Article: LIC School Where COVID Cases Nearly Tripled To Stay Open: DOE