Sixth death in Manhattan Legionnaires outbreak, 90 cases

A sixth person has died in connection with a Legionnaires' disease outbreak on Manhattan's Upper East Side, New York City health officials announced on Tuesday, July 28, 2026. The monthlong cluster, centered in the Carnegie Hill and Yorkville neighborhoods, has resulted in 90 confirmed cases since it was first identified in early July. Officials reported that no new cases have been diagnosed since July 17, indicating the source of the contamination has likely been contained.

The outbreak has been traced to contaminated cooling towers, which are part of large buildings' air conditioning systems. Health department investigators tested 183 cooling towers across 160 buildings in the affected area, finding 77 that tested positive for the presence of live Legionella bacteria. This scale of contamination was described by officials as more than three times larger than that found during a similar outbreak in Central Harlem the previous summer.

Six people remain hospitalized, while 65 patients have been discharged. Health officials have stressed that the disease is not related to any building's internal plumbing system and that tap water in the affected ZIP codes-10028, 10128, and...