Concerns over swine flu have closed four more schools Tuesday evening, including the first public school in Manhattan and a Nassau County high school. Initial tests late Tuesday showed a child first thought to have been killed by the virus may have died of something else.
The closures of four more schools -- PS 130 in Nolita, PS 35 in Hollis, the Merrick Academy in Jamaica, Queens -- brings the total number of New York City public and private schools temporarily shut this week to 26 and counting. Eighteen of those are public schools. A school in Union City, N.J., and another in Valley Stream, N.Y. have also been closed.
Health officials on Long Island are reporting 13 new confirmed cases of swine flu in Nassau County, including a 4-year-old child who has been hospitalized.
The Freeport child was hospitalized after becoming ill on May 11 with fever, cough and congestion, health officials said. Officials said the child and family had traveled to Mexico.
The other 12 confirmed cases are Valley Stream students, including eight who attend Memorial Junior High School, which has been shut down.
Swine flu concerns closed a private school in the Bronx and the number of confirmed cases on Rikers Island has now risen from one case to five. The number of confirmed cases in Union County also grew to four and officials were confirmed swine flu in Sullivan County man who attended a Met game before becoming ill.
Horace Mann School, in Riverdale, announced that it will close through the rest of the week. It's the first Bronx school to close due to the swine flu outbreak, and won't re-open until May 26. The school said it's been monitoring an "unusually high number of student absences," but none has officially been attributed to the swine flu, according to a released statement.
"The bottom line is a few more schools are likely to be closed," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday. "I'd be surprised if that didn't happen. We are not out of the woods yet."
The swine flu is also spreading at the Rikers Island jail, Mayor Bloomberg said. There are five confirmed swine flu cases and five more probable cases. That's up from just one confirmed case there on Monday.
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Nasal swabs from a child who died after being hospitalized with respiratory symptoms did not indicate H1N1 infection, according to the Health Department Tuesday night.
The parents of Jonathan Zamora Castillo, of Corona, noticed he was running a high fever Monday night and they rushed him to Elmhurst Hospital Center at 9:30 p.m. after the child began to turn blue, according to hospital spokesman Dario Centorcelli. The baby was pronounced dead at 10:20 p.m.
Because the case was fatal, tissue specimens taken from the child have been sent to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further analyses. Results of those tests are expected later this week.
Meantime, a memorial service for the first fatality linked to swine flu in New York, Mitchell Weiner, is set for Wednesday. Weiner, 55, an assistant principal at the Susan B. Anthony school, IS 238 in Hollis, died Sunday night after five days on a ventilator.
City health officials say Weiner's battle with the H1N1 virus was complicated by "pre-existing conditions," including high-blood pressure.
Medical experts are urging people who might have an underlying illness that then come down with flu-like symptoms to seek medical treatment.
“If you have an underlying medical condition, such as asthma or diabetes, and you have a fever with either a cough or sore throat, see your doctor immediately for medical treatment,” officials advised.
But, experts stress that though the swine flu seems to spread readily, it is not particularly dangerous. So far, 201 confirmed cases of swine flu have been diagnosed in New York City.
North of the city, a Liberty resident who went to a Mets game in New York City and later came down with the virus is the first Sullivan County resident to be confirmed with H1N1 influenza.
In Union City, New Jersey several school children have also been confirmed with the swine flu virus, prompting one school to be closed for cleaning.
Meantime, the mayor's handling of the swine flu outbreak has stirred criticism from his political opponents. Democratic city Comptroller, Bill Thompson, who's running against Bloomberg for mayor, wrote in a letter that "The recent death at IS 238 and the decision to keep the school open for three days after a confirmed case of H1N1 -- against the wishes of the school’s leadership -- has understandably stirred feelings of doubt about whether your Administration’s desire to preserve a sense of normalcy was placed ahead of the safety of the immediate school community."
On Monday, it was announced that four public schools in three school buildings were closed for as many as five school days, and an Upper East Side private school was closed indefinitely.
P.S. 209 in Whitestone, which is home to 544 students and a smaller school for students with disabilities, was shuttered after a total of 24 students at that school building were found to have influenza-like illnesses over the last week. P.S. 19 in Corona, which houses nearly 2,000 students was closed after 49 students came down with the flu. And P.S. 32 in Flushing canceled classes after a total of 30 students of a student body of 633 came down sick.
"There are no right answers," Bloomberg said. "And getting the data is as difficult as determining what to do with it."
Outgoing New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said Monday that "we continue to see a rising tide of flu in many parts of New York City. As the virus spreads, we will look to slow transmission within individual school communities by closing individual schools. We fully expect to see more severe illness in the coming days."
The St. David School, a prep school on East 89th Street, was not directed by the city to close but decided to close as a precaution.
Below is a list of the public schools schools currently closed:
PS 130
PS 35
Merrick Academy --
IS 238Q - reopening Friday, May 22
PS 16Q - reopening Friday, May 22
P255 (located at PS 16Q) - reopening Friday, May 22
IS 5Q - reopening Friday, May 22
JHS 74Q - reopening Tuesday, May 26
PS 107Q - reopening Tuesday, May 26
MS 158Q - reopening Tuesday, May 26
IS 25Q - reopening Tuesday, May 26
World Journalism Preparatory (located at IS 25Q) - reopening Tuesday, May 26
PS 233 (located at IS 25Q) - reopening Tuesday, May 26
IS 318K - reopening Tuesday, May 26
PS 19Q - reopening date TBD
PS 32Q - reopening date TBD
PS 209Q - reopening date TBD
P9 (located at PS 209Q) - reopening date TBD
Private and charter schools closed:
* Holy Family School
* Horace Mann School
* Our Lady of Lourdes School
* San Demetrios School in Astoria (Reopens Tuesday, May 26)
* South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures and the Arts in Mott Haven (All three locations reopen Tuesday, May 26)
* St. David’s School
* St. Joseph School
* The Child Legacy School on Roosevelt Island
The United Federation of Teachers has set up a hotline for each district in Queens, and a hotline for each of the city's other boroughs. To find the hotline in your area, click here.
Do you have questions about the swine flu? E-mail them to us and they'll be answered by a doctor during our televised special "The Truth About Swine Flu" airing on Wednesday at 5 p.m. on 4 New York.
