2 Upper East Side Schools Fall Under COVID Investigation: DOE

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Two Upper East Side schools have come under investigation by the city after reporting multiple coronavirus cases within the last week, according to the Department of Education.

East Side Elementary on East 63rd Street began its investigation Friday, while the Julia Richman Education Complex on East 67th Street came under investigation on Monday, according to the DOE's interactive map detailing COVID cases across the city.

At East Side Elementary, which sits between Second and Third avenues, the city first imposed a classroom closure last Monday after an unspecified number of cases were confirmed. That was followed four days later by a partial classroom quarantine, in which a subset of students must stay home while others can keep attending school.

Meanwhile, at Julia Richman on Second Avenue, three partial classroom quarantines began last Tuesday at Talent Unlimited High School — one of six small schools contained within the complex.

In the following days, Talent Unlimited had six more partial quarantines, joined by three quarantines each at Vanguard High School and Manhattan International High School; and one each at Urban Academy Laboratory High School and the Ella Baker School.

Under DOE guidelines, schools are only closed if an investigation reveals that there is widespread transmission in the school.

Besides those two, another 10 Upper East Side schools had fallen under COVID protocols as of Sunday evening. They were:

• P.S. 183 Robert L. Stevenson (419 East 66th St.): two partial classroom quarantines
• J.H.S. 167 Robert F. Wagner (220 East 76th St.): three partial classroom quarantines
• District 2 Pre-K Center (355 East 76th St.): one classroom closed
• Eleanor Roosevelt High School (411 East 76th St.): one partial classroom quarantine
• P.S. 158 Bayard Taylor (1458 York Ave.): one classroom closed; two partial classroom quarantines
• P.S. 290 Manhattan New School (311 East 82nd St.): three partial classroom quarantines
• P.S. 6 Lillie D. Blake (45 East 81st St.): two partial classroom quarantines
• Yorkville Community School (421 East 88th St.): one partial classroom quarantine
• P.S. M169 - Robert F. Kennedy (110 East 88th St.): three partial classroom quarantines
• P.S. 198 Isador E. Ida Straus (1700 Third Ave.): one classroom closed

The city's coronavirus rules have led to only 10 full school closures so far this year, far fewer than the hundreds of extended closures in the 2020-21 school year under previous guidelines. School buildings that were shut down to begin this week included City Knoll Middle School on West 53rd Street in Hell's Kitchen.

Still, the number of investigations has ramped up in recent weeks. A total of 101 schools have been investigated this year for possible closure, including 44 active investigations as of Monday, according to the map.

The surge in investigations comes amid a spike in coronavirus cases across the city and state. New York has broken its all-time COVID cases record three days in a row this week, including 12,404 positive cases detected in New York City alone on Sunday.

Despite the alarming surge, the city's hospitals are not yet being overwhelmed by patients, giving rise to some cautious optimism that this variant could cause less severe illness.

Related coverage:

• Where To Get A Coronavirus Test On The Upper East Side
• Upper East Side COVID-19 Cases Jump Amid Omicron's Rise: Data