At a packed town hall meeting at Metropolitan College, New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin and other health officials looked to answer some of the questions that weighed on the minds of residents from Melrose and Morrisania.

That’s where 10 cooling towers were confirmed to have tested positive over the weekend for Legionella bacteria.

“Remember, there are 24 total cooling towers in this area that we are concerned about,” Martin said. “All of them have been sampled, and all the ones that were positive that we were concerned about have been cleaned and disinfected.”

At this time, the city’s Health Department says one person has died, three people remain hospitalized, and a total of 11 people have tested positive in connection with the latest cluster of cases identified late last week in the South Bronx.

While the city also hosted a virtual town hall meeting this past Sunday on the same topic, several seniors who attended told NY1 they believed showing up in person would allow health officials to get a better sense of the level of concern many people are feeling.

“We want to know what we can do to keep ourselves safe,” said Patricia Wright of Melrose.

“Our main concerns are health issues!” said Gwendolyn Price, a Melrose resident. “We have a lot of seniors in our building, and I think a lot of them don’t know what’s going on.”

Stefan Marchione said his grandfather contracted Legionnaires’ disease in the 1980s and survived. While he believes the town hall meeting was overall worthwhile, he added, “It was nothing I didn’t already know, but I think for people that are not familiar, I think the panel answered the questions and provided the information.”

Others took issue with the level of in-person canvassing that the health department said it had done to get the facts out.

“This was an insult to the group community’s intelligence,” says Derrick Miles of Melrose. “I live right around the corner. Unfortunately, the people who need to get the information out maybe could have done a better job. There were some lies told. They said they been in these streets. They have not. They might have been a few places, but they have not been hardcore getting into these streets like they say they have.”

The city’s Health Department said it is safe to shower, drink tap water, and use air conditioners in the affected ZIP codes.