In the nation's most dramatic move to stop the coronavirus so far, Gov. Andrew Cuomo shut down the state's most infected areas.

Closing New Rochelle schools, calling in the National Guard, and providing more testing for New Rochelle are just some of the most aggressive tactics New York hopes will put an end to the coronavirus.

Every school and place of mass gathering place within a 1-mile radius of Young Israel of New Rochelle will be shuttered starting Thursday and continuing for two weeks as part of a containment zone.

All of the county's coronavirus cases are clustered in New Rochelle.

"The containment strategy is focused on geographic area. Commissioner Zucker has been working on this. This is the single greatest public health challenge we have in the state right now," said Cuomo.

He's also calling in the National Guard to assist with cleaning and community support efforts, like cleaning public spaces that may be contaminated with the virus and delivering food to the community.

Northwell Health is setting up a temporary testing site in New Rochelle to get as many people tested in the country's most infected community.

The rules about the containment zone in Amy Paulin's Assembly district are leaving her confused.

"I’m assuming that this research is the right approach, but I don't know, are there other businesses that are going to be closed? is Lake Isle going to be closed? It's within the catchment area so I think there are still a lot of question marks,” she says.

The containment zone is a restriction on places not people, according to the governor. Anyone can still walk around freely.

 

 

The rest of the cases are in New York City, Nassau, Saratoga, Suffolk and Ulster counties.

“This is unique in the United States of America, we haven’t seen this anywhere else. Think about it, New Rochelle has double the cases of New York City, it’s true, it’s a phenomenon,” says Cuomo.