Live Legionella bacteria were confirmed in 59 of the 183 cooling towers New York City tested during this summer's Upper East Side Legionnaires' disease cluster, according to data published by the New York City Health Department. That is close to one in three of every tower sampled, and it is the number that best describes the scale of a problem sitting on rooftops across the city.
The cluster itself has ended. The city recorded 92 diagnosed cases and seven deaths, with no cases diagnosed after July 21, and said it is confident the source of the bacteria has been eliminated. Those counts were last updated on July 30 and will not be revised further.
