Two more people have died in the Legionnaires’ disease outbreak that has racked the Upper East Side this summer, bringing the death toll to nine, the city health department confirmed Friday.
The total death toll now exceeds that from the outbreak last summer in Harlem, which killed seven.
“We mourn each loss, and our hearts are with their loved ones,” city Health Commissioner Alister Martin posted on X Friday afternoon.
He added, “These cases were diagnosed weeks ago, and the source has been eliminated.”
One of the deaths was first announced Friday afternoon by Katter Law Firm, which represents the family of the person who died. The law firm declined to identify the victim, but offered some details of his illness.
“He battled Legionnaires’ disease for more than four weeks on life support in a hospital ICU and died just as he was about to be discharged to a skilled nursing facility,” attorney Ronald Katter said in a statement.
In the Upper East Side outbreak, according to city data, 92 people were diagnosed with the severe form of pneumonia since early July, and more than 70 were hospitalized.
The deaths come after city health officials declared the Upper East Side outbreak over late last month. At the time, Martin said no one had developed new symptoms of the disease in more than two weeks, indicating that the source of the outbreak had been eliminated. Now only one person remains hospitalized.
“His family will live with that loss long after the city declared the outbreak over,” Katter said of the latest fatality. “How many more New Yorkers must die before the city and cooling tower owners act to stop these recurring, preventable deaths?”
The city health department has said the Legionnaires’ outbreak stemmed from a building’s water cooling tower contaminated with Legionella bacteria on the Upper East Side. Cooling towers can emit water vapor contaminated with Legionella into the atmosphere and it can get passersby sick when inhaled.
The city health department has tested water cooling towers in the affected area for Legionella and ordered all that tested positive to be remediated. However, city officials say they are still working to determine which cooling tower actually caused this summer’s outbreak.