Legionnaires’ Death Toll Rises to Eleven from UES Outbreak
While the outbreak itself has been declared formally over since late July, people with long bouts of Legionnaires’ continued to succumb to the disease weeks later. No patients remain hospitalized, the NYC Health Commissioner said on August 28.
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| 31 Aug 2026 | 04:52
The death toll from a Legionnaires’ outbreak that struck the Upper East Side last month has risen to 11, NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alistair Martin (above) says. (
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New York City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who represents the area, called the latest update in the death toll “truly devastating.” (
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Two more people have now been killed in connection with a Legionnaires’ outbreak that tore through the Upper East Side last month, leading to 11 deaths in total.
The outbreak was declared contained on July 28, with no new cases reported after July 17—which means that the latest victims had been dealing with the disease for quite some time.
“In recent weeks, our disease investigators confirmed two additional deaths connected to the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease cluster,” NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Alistair Martin wrote online. “There is no evidence of ongoing transmission as the last diagnosis was more than six weeks ago.”
Dr. Martin added that all remaining Legionnaires’ patients connected to the outbreak have now been released from the hospital, with the overall case count now sitting at 94.
The commissioner also made clear that follow-up testing was ongoing. “Our work is not over. While the cluster has been closed for 4 weeks, our scientists continue working to match samples from cooling towers with samples from patients. We expect those findings in September, and we will share them publicly.”
City Council Speaker Julie Menin—who has been critical of the city’s response to the outbreak, which was located in her district—also commented on the updated death toll. In the process, she drew attention to a forthcoming City Council hearing on the subject, which is slated to be held on September 2.
“The toll this outbreak has had on dozens of impacted families, and on our neighborhood as a whole, is truly devastating,” she said. “During our hearing next Wednesday, (Sept. 2) the City Council will closely examine how this tragic outbreak occurred and what additional actions and policies are needed to better protect New Yorkers.”
Legionnaires’, a severe form of pneumonia, is caused by the inhalation of Legionella bacteria. The disease is not contagious, and instead spreads via aerosols, such as those emitted by cooling towers that serve as standard building infrastructure. Legionnaires’ can also develop in internal water systems, as seen in separate (far smaller) outbreaks that affected housing complexes in the East Village and Yorkville neighborhoods earlier this year.
Seventy-seven cooling towers ended up testing positive for Legionnaires’ during a city probe into the latest Upper East Side outbreak, which was concentrated in three ZIP codes; a total of 160 local buildings were tested by health inspectors overall, with the Metropolitan Museum and the Guggenheim Museum both receiving positive tests.
All of these cooling towers have since been remediated of the disease, the Health Department says, a process that typically involves treating the basins of the towers with a biocide such as chlorine. Yet each building owner needs to invest time into designing specialized cleaning plans for the towers under their responsibility, as a recent report in Gothamist noted, which involves taking into account factors such as wind direction and elevation.
On August 12, Council Member Virginia Maloney (who also represents the East Side) introduced a bill that would strengthen this testing regime, by tasking building owners with conducting three tests a year, with one required during the summer.