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Number of UES buildings with positive Legionella tests more than doubles since preliminary findings
Gothamist • • health
Key Points:
- The number of Upper East Side buildings with water-cooling towers testing positive for Legionella bacteria has more than doubled, with 45 new sites added to a previous list of 31, amid an ongoing Legionnaires’ disease outbreak investigation.
- City health officials have ordered all affected building owners to drain, clean, and disinfect their cooling towers, with 57 owners having completed remediation and 19 more required to finish by Thursday.
- The outbreak has sickened 60 people and hospitalized 49, but no deaths have been reported; the number of new diagnoses has slowed since peaking on July 6, and officials expect cases to decline as remediation continues.
- Cooling towers were tested across three ZIP codes (10028, 10128, and 10075), and initial testing is now complete with no additional positive sites expected; health officials emphasize there is no extra risk from being inside these buildings.
- Further testing is needed to identify the specific cooling towers responsible for the outbreak, as Legionella bacteria can spread through water vapor emitted from contaminated towers.
