Douglaston School Where COVID Cases Doubled Monday To Stay Open

DOUGLASTON, QUEENS — Students will continue to learn in-person at a Douglaston school where COVID cases doubled this week.

At least three students at P.S. 98 The Douglaston School, an elementary school located at 40-20 235th Street, tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday, Nov. 22nd, records show.

This case count is relatively small compared to the number of COVID cases at other public schools in Queens, but the uptick still brings The Douglaston School's total case count for this school year to seven — including one staff member and six students — meaning cases doubled among students in one day.

The increased case count on Monday prompted an investigation that day by the Department of Education and Department of Health. The investigation, however, did not find proof of "widespread in-school transmission" — the city's litmus test for closing a school — since it was determined that the school should remain open, according to the DOE's Daily COVID Case Map.

Last week a DOE spokesperson told Patch that the agency "investigates every [COVID] case in our schools" and that school investigations are a "regular process" that the agency conducts.

According to the agency's Daily COVID case map, however, there have only been 23 such investigations at the DOE's 1,800-plus schools this academic year, compared to hundreds of classroom closures — another kind of COVID-related intervention.

On the day of The Douglaston School's investigation one classroom at the elementary school was shut down amid a COVID outbreak; five others are partially closed 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 of these classrooms are slated to fully reopen next week.

The investigation at P.S. 98 comes during a month when two public schools were forced to temporarily close amid COVID-19 outbreaks, bringing the total number of COVID-related school closures in NYC to three this academic year.

Another private school in Astoria closed last week, too, as a "precautionary" measure amid an uptick in cases, Patch reported.

Despite this spike, the demand for vaccination at NYC public schools has exceeded expectations, Mayor Bill de Blasio said, with the city vaccinating 82,000 5- to 11-year-olds in two weeks.

Now, 12 percent of eligible New Yorkers ages 11 and under are vaccinated, which exceeds the national average of 10 percent among that group, de Blasio announced.

The city will continue to expand its school vaccination program given the higher-than-expected demand for the shots at public schools; the expansion will include charter schools and a second round of vaccination at public schools starting Nov. 30, even though city officials originally planned to only have first doses available at the school sites.

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