There is no longer an elevated risk of exposure to Legionnaires‘ disease on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Health Department.
Health officials said that, as of Friday, the incubation period for new cases has passed.
The cluster associated with seven deaths affected ZIP codes 10028, 10075 and 10128. As of Thursday, there were 92 cases of Legionnaires’ associated with the cluster, with 79 requiring hospitalization. Five of them are still in the hospital.
The last day anyone who lives, works or visited the area began feeling symptoms was two weeks ago.
“The moment we identified a potential community cluster, we mobilized more than 260 Health Department staff, tested every cooling tower in the affected area, and directed every building with an initial positive test to immediately clean and disinfect its cooling tower, before we ever confirmed live Legionella bacteria were present,” said NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin.
Now that all 82 affected towers have been fully drained, cleaned and disinfected, “the
The DOH said 60% of inspections on infected towers resulted in at least one violation. Owners who had violations were issued citations and fines.
Officials are continuing to investigate the
