Bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease found at 76 buildings, NYC health commissioner says

The New York City Health Department on Tuesday added 45 additional Upper East Side buildings that tested positive for the bacteria that causes Legionnaires' disease.

Health Commissioner Dr. Alister F. Martin confirmed that out of the 183 cooling towers tested, 76 came back positive for the Legionella bacteria, up from 31 on Monday. The testing happened across the following zip codes: 10128, 10028 and 10075.

Martin said the department is waiting for culture test results to determine which cooling towers have live Legionella.

Among the buildings to test positive, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and schools.

76 "is a significant number"  

The Department of Health said 57 buildings have already completed the required remediation, and the rest need to do so by Thursday.

"Seventy-six buildings, we know, is a significant number, but we knew that that list would be long," Martin said. "There's a high concentration of cooling towers in the Upper East Side and our initial screening tests cast a wide net. These results are also indicative of just how common Legionella is in our built environment."

The health department says as of Tuesday night there are 63 total cases, with 12 people currently hospitalized, 40 recently discharged, and 11 who were never admitted. Most importantly, there have been no deaths.

"More than half of all patients who were hospitalized returned home. That's an encouraging sign," Martin said.

Health experts are advising people who spend time in the zip codes under investigation to get medical help if they experience flu-like symptoms.

"Finding does not pose a risk" inside Met Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art released the following statement on Tuesday night:

"The safety and wellbeing of our visitors, staff and volunteers is of the utmost importance to us. Along with several other neighborhood institutions, we have been notified by the Department of Health that testing detected a trace amount of Legionella bacteria in our cooling tower system," the museum said in a statement.

"In accordance with New York City guidelines and our established health and safety protocols, we have immediately initiated the required remediation and are working with the City and our third-party water management specialists to conduct follow-up testing.

"Based on guidance from the city and public health experts, this finding does not pose a risk to staff or visitors inside the Museum. We will continue to work closely with the Department of Health and will provide updates as they become available."

As per its usual protocol, the museum will be closed on Wednesday, and all non-essential personnel will be working remotely.

NYC Council speaker recently took health department to task

The new information on the impacted buildings comes on the heels of City Council Speaker Julie Menin criticizing the handling of the outbreak by Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration.

On Monday night, the city hosted its second virtual town hall on the Upper East Side cluster. It focused on ongoing testing, health risks, and what the most vulnerable to an infection need to know.

During the meeting, Menin raised concerns and pushed for more guidance for the public. Later on social media, she demanded greater transparency and pressed the health department, calling on it to "proactively disinfect all cooling towers in the affected area, promptly disclose which buildings have tested positive for Legionella."

During the meeting, the health department panel answered concerns raised about potential exposure.

"In the scenario of a community cluster, which we are in now, it is safe to use your shower, safe to use your air conditioner, safe to drink your water," Martin said.

Residents who live near the impacted buildings say more needs to be done to help keep residents informed and about the disease and the city's process to prevent it from spreading.

"I just mentioned it to my roommate very recently and like they did not know what it was or even heard of it," Azriel Ottenwalder said.