New Rochelle looks back at one year of the COVID pandemic

NEW YORK - It's hard for many people to believe that it's been a full year since the coronavirus pandemic created one of the first ghost towns in the U.S., as the Wykagyl section of New Rochelle became our area's first case of community spread of COVID-19 that rocked the city and soon, the entire nation.

For residents in New Rochelle, the recovery is still ongoing.

"We didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow, what's going on, no-one really knew," said Mario Salvo, the owner of Deanna's Pizzeria who spoke to FOX 5 NY last year before masks and social distancing became the new normal.

New Rochelle became the first containment zone and the first place where groups of people quarantined for 14 days after a lawyer became the first known local case of COVID-19.

Some wonder if New Rochelle will always have the stigma of being one of the first places in the U.S. to have an outbreak of the virus.

For Salvo, however, he is still holding onto hope that one day his pizzeria will look like the New Rochelle he has always known, even if it takes another year.