{"id":291036,"date":"2026-07-09T02:23:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:23:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291036\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T02:23:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T02:23:33","slug":"legionnaires-disease-outbreak-28-new-yorkers-now-sick-as-city-expands-public-health-response-to-upper-east-side-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291036\/","title":{"rendered":"Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak: 28 New Yorkers now sick as city expands public health response to Upper East Side crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Legionnaires\u2019 disease<\/a> outbreak on the Upper East Side (UES) continues to sicken more New Yorkers, as the city reported 28 patients infected with the contagion as of Wednesday morning while announcing new measures to address the public health concern.<\/p>\n

Of the total cases, 21 of the 28 infected patients have been hospitalized. There have been no deaths, according to city officials, though the disease can be fatal. Seven people died in Harlem after an outbreak of Legionnaires\u2019 disease struck the neighborhood last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The affected areas<\/a> in the recent outbreak remain contained in ZIP codes 10028, 10128, and 10075 in Carnegie Hill, Yorkville, and Lenox Hill on the UES.\u00a0<\/p>\n

How is the city responding?<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani and NYC Health Department officials said on Tuesday night they are taking \u201caggressive action\u201d to address the public health concern<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Specifically, the mayor said in an \u201cunprecedented step,\u201d he will release the addresses of all buildings whose cooling towers test positive for Legionella during the initial screening process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s a public health threat, New Yorkers deserve urgency and transparency from their government,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cThat\u2019s\u00a0why\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0using every tool available to protect people by moving quickly to\u00a0identify\u00a0potential sources of exposure, requiring immediate\u00a0remediation\u00a0and making sure New Yorkers have the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

The health department will release the addresses of all buildings whose cooling towers test positive on the initial screening test as results become available, officials said.\n<\/p>\n

Right now, it is unclear how the mayor will release the addresses. However, buildings with positive initial tests will be ordered to drain, clean, and disinfect their cooling towers to reduce the risk of further exposure, the mayor explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin, MD, said his staff has been working \u201cnonstop\u201d since the disease appeared in what officials call a \u201ccommunity cluster\u201d on July 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 100 NYC Health Department staff members have worked nonstop since the start of this cluster as we take aggressive action to ensure that we are cutting off the source of exposure as quickly as possible,\u201d Martin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0UES has a high concentration of cooling towers \u2014 more than three times the number tested during last year\u2019s Harlem investigation. As of July 6, approximately 160 cooling towers are registered within the three ZIP codes under investigation, though not all are\u00a0operating\u00a0or located within the investigation zone, city officials explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Health department staff collected samples from 139 towers as of July 6.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n

What precautions should New Yorkers take?<\/p>\n

Symptoms of Legionnaires\u2019 disease, which is a type of pneumonia, include fever, chills, muscle aches and cough. People get sick when they breathe in Legionella bacteria that are spread through the air from mist produced by cooling towers. Symptoms typically develop two to 14 days after exposure. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Doctors urge New Yorkers, especially those living on the UES, to stay informed about public health alerts<\/a>. The NYC Health Department has been posting alerts about the outbreak, as well as other pertinent safety information, on its website at\u00a0nyc.gov<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Legionella bacteria is spread through inhaling contaminated water, not person to person, New Yorkers on the Upper East Side, where the outbreak is concentrated, should pay close attention to public health alerts and be aware of contaminated areas,\u201d Daniel Knecht, MD, chief medical officer at EmblemHealth, told amNewYork.<\/p>\n

The health department said it is safe to use air conditioners, cooling centers, and other city facilities in the affected areas, as well as shower and drink tap water. Officials noted that cooling tower mist stays outdoors and does not affect indoor air conditioning, window units or building plumbing.<\/p>\n

Adults 50 and older, smokers and people with chronic lung disease or weakened immune systems face the highest risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Legionnaires\u2019 disease outbreak on the Upper East Side (UES) continues to sicken more New Yorkers, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[64364,111188,111189,75,84,83,22925,9,24,63,613,466],"class_list":["post-291036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-alister-martin","tag-legionnaires-disease-deaths","tag-legionnaires-disease-nyc","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-mayor-zohran-mamdani","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-upper-east-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}