Swine-flu fears rocked the Upper East Side yesterday as a prestigious school became one of 16 in the city — and the first in Manhattan — to close, after 12 percent of the student body fell ill.
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The closing of St. David’s School, on East 89th Street off Fifth Avenue, sent shudders through the tony neighborhood and came as the city locked four more Queens public schools because of increased numbers of kids suffering flu-like ailments.
In all, 17 Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan schools are now closed because of swine-flu concerns — disrupting more than 15,000 students’ schedules — and authorities warned that the virus will keep spreading. Many parents yanked their kids out of schools that remained open in Queens and Brooklyn as a precaution.
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“We had no idea that there were any concerns of possible cases in Manhattan. It’s certainly very disconcerting that right across the street, there are many children who are showing symptoms,” said Doreen Mallory, 37, who lives near St. David’s and whose 12-year-old niece attends the Trevor Day School across the street.
St. David’s Headmaster David O’Halloran said it was “the prudent thing to do” to close the Catholic boys’ school for a day, even though no student there tested positive for swine flu.
Concerned Upper East Siders had already been taking precautions.
The manager of Gracious Home, on Third Avenue near East 70th Street, said that this month alone, the housewares store has sold 202 face masks — compared to “zero in February and zero in March.”
“It’s pretty crazy,” he said. “I’ve sold five masks so far today.”
The newly closed public schools are in Queens: PS 209 and PS 9, in Whitestone; PS 19 in Corona; and PS 32 in Flushing. Also, the Child School – Legacy HS on Roosevelt Island. Where on confirmed case of swine flu was reported.
Education officials said citywide attendance yesterday was at 85.1 percent; last Monday, it was 86.5 percent.
Meanwhile, yesterday:
* The city Health Department said there have been 192 confirmed swine-flu cases in the Big Apple.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said about 100,000 people are likely infected with the new flu around the country. Dr. Anne Schuchat, an interim deputy director, said the 5,123 confirmed and probable cases and six deaths in the United States were “the tip of the iceberg.”
* An autopsy on IS 238 Assistant Principal Mitchell Wiener, who had swine flu, was performed, but the official cause of his death will take up to 10 days to determine. His funeral is planned for tomorrow at Sinai Chapels on Horace Harding Expressway in Fresh Meadows.
At an impromptu memorial in front of his closed school in Hollis, his wife, Bonnie, mingled with kids, parents and former students.
“I am overwhelmed,” she said. “It’s this wonderful community that my husband loved that will sustain me.”
Student Ajay Chauham, 14, called Wiener “the coolest guy I’ve ever known . . . He was like a father to me.”
And parent Wanda Gonzalez, 47, a teacher’s assistant, said her daughter is devastated.
“She said she lost her best friend,” Gonzalez said. “Even if everyone says it’s only a flu … it took away someone we care about.”
* A Union, NJ, elementary school was closed for a week because a boy there had swine flu.
* Nine Rikers Island inmates are sick with swine flu, the city Correction Department reported. The guards’ union is demanding that facilities where the sick inmates have been housed be shut and cleaned.
* Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi announced five more confirmed swine-flu cases there and the implementation of a tracking system to keep tabs on school absenteeism.
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen, Kavita Mokha, Sally Gold enberg, Laurie Kamens and Chris tina Carrega