ALBANY – The National Guard has been deployed to New Rochelle as Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered schools, houses of worship and other large gathering places in a portion of the city to temporarily close, marking New York's latest attempt to stop the spread of one of the country's worst novel coronavirus clusters.

Cuomo announced a plan Tuesday to enforce a "containment area" of a one-mile radius around the Young Israel synagogue at the center of the cluster, which includes part of the city of New Rochelle and stretches into the town of Eastchester, both of which are about 20 miles north of midtown Manhattan in Westchester County.

Any large gathering places within that containment area will be required to shut down through March 25, Cuomo said.

That includes Young Israel and several public and private schools, including three each from the New Rochelle and Tuckahoe school districts.

View:See a larger image of the New Rochelle containment area here

Meanwhile, a Yonkers Raceway horse trainer and mainstay in the paddock who lived in Bergen County is New Jersey’s first coronavirus death, state officials said Tuesday.

He was identified as John Brennan, 69. Health officials said Brennan had several underlying medical conditions, including emphysema, diabetes and hypertension, and had been hospitalized at Hackensack University Medical Center last Friday. He suffered a heart attack Monday night and was revived, but died Tuesday morning after going into cardiac arrest again.

The racetrack was closed Tuesday.

But Westchester remains at the epicenter of New York state’s coronavirus outbreak, with the county seeing 108 confirmed cases as of Tuesday afternoon. That accounted for 62% of the state’s total cases and about 13% of the total across the entire U.S.

Cuomo called those numbers "breathtaking." The National Guard will help residents under precautionary quarantine and help disinfect public areas, he said.

"One mile is a fairly constrained area," Cuomo said. "It is dramatic action but it is the largest cluster in the country and this is literally a matter of life and death. That's not an overly rhetorical statement."

Top NY health official recommends containment approach

The state's latest approach was recommended by Howard Zucker, the state's health commissioner.

Cuomo called it a "public-health decision," saying he would accept Zucker's recommendation in hopes of mitigating the spread of the disease caused by the virus.

The number of cases statewide grew to 173 on Tuesday, up from 142 on Monday.

Under the state's plan, residents who live within the containment area will be free to leave their homes and the area so long as they have not otherwise been ordered to quarantine.

The state's order will apply only to "large gathering places," primarily schools and places of worship. It will not apply to grocery stores or restaurants, which will be allowed to remain open.

"It’s not a decision that I’m making," Cuomo said. "I’m accepting the recommendation of Dr. Zucker. In a situation like this, whether you’re president, mayor, governor, let the experts decide and let the science decide the situation.”

New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson emphasized the containment zone does not apply to individuals.

"It's not as though New Rochelle is going to become a militarized community," he said. "It's not like we're going to have checkpoints as people are coming and going."

Outbreak is one of nation's largest

New Rochelle's outbreak has centered around Young Israel, a modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue where dozens of congregants have developed the coronavirus disease after a series of large gatherings the weekend of Feb. 22.

A Young Israel congregant, an attorney who lives in New Rochelle and works in Manhattan, first tested positive for the coronavirus disease the night of March 2.

Since then, the virus has quickly spread and about 1,000 congregants were ordered to quarantine as a precaution.

The synagogue is at the direct center of the containment area.

"We felt the radius of a mile from that spot would be effective in an effort to try to decrease the spread," Zucker said.

The containment area includes New Rochelle's Wykagyl section, where the synagogue is located. It includes anything within a mile of the synagogue, which stretches west to include eastern portions of the town of Eastchester.

Cuomo said Northwell Health, a Long Island-based health system, will set up a satellite location to offer coronavirus tests. The private lab received federal approval to test for coronavirus cases.

School closures inside, outside containment zone

According to Cuomo's office, the temporary closure order applies to three New Rochelle schools:New Rochelle High School, Albert Leonard Middle School and William B. Ward Elementary School.

Those schools will close beginning Wednesday, according to the New Rochelle district, though Cuomo said his order officially begins Thursday.

"We must make these two weeks count instructionally and ensure students are learning and engaged while we deal with this worldwide crisis," Superintendent Laura Feijoo said in an email to parents.

"Students will receive targeted instructional guidance which will be aligned horizontally district wide."

In the Tuckahoe school district, all three schools will be closed: Tuckahoe High School, Tuckahoe Middle School and William E Cottle School, according to Cuomo's office.

The Ursuline School, Hudson Country Montessori School and Thornton Donovan School — private schools within the containment zone — will also be required to close, as will the Westchester Day School, Westchester Torah Academy and the Bronx's SAR Academy and High School, all of which are outside of the zone but are part of the modern Orthodox community hit hard by the coronavirus.

National Guard will clean, deliver

Cuomo said National Guard troops will be tasked with deep-cleaning public facilities within the containment zone and delivering food and medicine to coronavirus patients and others under quarantine.

The deployment comes as experts debate how long the virus can live on solid surfaces, Cuomo said.

"So cleaning those surfaces is very important with the right material and the National Guard will be helpful on that," Cuomo said.

It wasn't immediately clear how many troops had been deployed, though some were already on the ground Tuesday afternoon.

New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson said the sight of National Guard troops on his city's streets is not cause for alarm.

The Guard is being brought in to help with tasks the city can't do on its own, like distribute food to hundreds of people under quarantine.

"I want to be real about this: When you see someone from the National Guard on your street and outside your home, it is natural and human to find it unsettling," he said at a Westchester news conference.

"But I want to emphasize: The Guard is here to help us."

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Jon Campbell is a New York state government reporter for the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at JCAMPBELL1@Gannett.com or on Twitter at @JonCampbellGAN.

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