4 Hell's Kitchen Schools Under Quarantine For COVID Cases: DOE

HELL'S KITCHEN, NY — One week after the city began vaccinating youngsters against COVID-19, a smattering of schools in Hell's Kitchen are still swept up in virus-prevention protocols, according to the Department of Education.

As of Monday evening, four public schools in the neighborhood had imposed partial quarantines due to a coronavirus exposure, according to the interactive map from the Department of Education.

Partial quarantines

These schools were under partial classroom quarantines, in which only a subset of students in a classroom are required to quarantine while others can keep attending school.

• High School for Environmental Studies (444 West 56th St.)
• Manhattan Bridges High School, P.S. 138 (525 West 50th St.)
• Business Of Sports School, Success Academy Charter School - Hell's Kitchen (439 West 49th St.)
• Professional Performing Arts High School (328 West 48th St.)

Two schools in Midtown also had partial quarantines this week: Repertory Company High School for Theatre Arts on West 43rd Street and the High School of Art and Design on East 56th Street.

Across the city, only two public schools were fully closed due to a virus outbreak: P.S. 166 in Astoria, and Village Academy in Far Rockaway — both in Queens. (A private parochial school in Astoria also shut down this week after two students and an unvaccinated teacher caught COVID, its principal told Patch.)

Altogether, 2,278 classrooms have been closed due to COVID exposures since the start of school on Sept. 13. That's less than four percent of the 65,000 spaces the city is using as classrooms this year.

Once a common headache for parents, full school closures have become far less common this year thanks to a revised policy by the DOE.

The vaccine rollout for children aged 5-11 began last Monday thanks to federal approval. Some school-based vaccination sites were quickly plagued by long lines and supply shortfalls — though Mayor Bill de Blasio chalked that up as a positive sign of strong interest.

"We have been pleasantly surprised at how big the response has been at the school level," he said last week. About 17,000 kids got their shots over the first three-day period.

Now, three state-run mass-vaccination sites in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens have also opened up to children, as officials hope to speed up the rollout.

Book a vaccine appointment at vaccinefinder.nyc.gov, or for state-run sites, ny.gov/vaccine.