Two weeks after the first cases surfaced, the Legionnaires’ disease cluster centered on the Upper East Side has grown to 63 confirmed cases — and while the pace of new infections finally appears to be easing, the city still hasn’t pinned down which of the neighborhood’s cooling towers is actually making people sick.
Advertisement
As of July 14, the outbreak had sickened 63 people, with 12 hospitalizations and 40 people discharged. No deaths have been reported, and health officials said this week that the rate of new cases has slowed considerably, though they’ve cautioned the figures are preliminary and can shift day to day.The bigger development since our last update is the scope of the testing. City health officials said Tuesday that 76 buildings have now tested positive for Legionella bacteria in preliminary screening — more than double the 31 reported last week — including the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 1000 Fifth Avenue. The Guggenheim Museum is also among the affected buildings, along with a Whole Foods, a summer day camp, doctors’ offices and residential buildings. Of the 183 cooling towers sampled across the area, no results remain outstanding; 57 buildings have completed the required remediation and the remaining 19 — the Met among them — were ordered to finish by Thursday.
Crucially, a positive screen still isn’t a smoking gun. Officials have stressed that a tower testing positive doesn’t confirm it’s connected to the outbreak, and more testing is needed to determine the actual source. The city says it will run additional tests to pinpoint where the outbreak started and to distinguish between live and dead bacteria, which the initial screening can’t do — work that officials have said could still take weeks. Because the incubation period runs two to 14 days, more illnesses could still surface even as the pace slows.
The response has also become a political flashpoint. City Council Speaker Julie Menin has criticized Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration over its handling of the outbreak, pressing the Health Department to proactively disinfect every cooling tower in the affected area and to promptly disclose which buildings have tested positive. Menin, who lives in the impacted area, has warned that a death may only be a matter of time given the vulnerable senior population there. But Dr. Tyler Evans, a former New York City chief medical officer, has argued that proactively disinfecting every tower simply isn’t realistic, particularly as public health agencies face federal funding pressures.
Advertisement
One point of confusion worth clearing up for readers: a separate case across the park. Officials have confirmed that a building on the Upper West Side tested positive for Legionella in its hot water system — not a cooling tower — but say that case is not linked to the Upper East Side cluster.For now, the guidance to residents hasn’t changed. Officials say the outbreak isn’t tied to any building’s plumbing, so people in the affected ZIP codes can keep drinking tap water, showering, cooking and running their air conditioners, and the disease doesn’t spread person to person. Anyone who lives, works or has spent time in the area since late June and develops flu-like symptoms — cough, fever, or difficulty breathing — should contact a health care provider right away, with higher risk for people 50 or older, smokers and vapers, and those with chronic lung conditions or weakened immune systems. Help finding a provider, regardless of immigration or insurance status, is available by calling 311 or 844-692-4692.
The stakes are clear from recent history: last summer’s Legionnaires’ outbreak in Central Harlem sickened more than 100 people and killed seven.
Find NYC Health Department updates here: https://www.nyc.gov/site/doh/health/health-topics/legionnaires-disease.page
Have a news tip? Send it to us here!
