Two more people died from the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease outbreak, raising the death toll to 11 — but health officials on Friday said the cluster is no longer spreading.
New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin announced that the city’s “disease investigators confirmed two additional deaths connected to the Upper East Side Legionnaires’ disease cluster,” in a statement shared Friday.
“We are deeply saddened by every life lost, and our hearts are with the families and loved ones who are grieving,” the health official said.
“There is no evidence of ongoing transmission as the last diagnosis was more than six weeks ago,” Martin said.
The Big Apple has seen a total of 94 cases and 11 deaths from this summer’s Upper East Side cluster.
Nearly 80 people were admitted to hospital from the summer outbreak but Martin confirmed “there are now no patients hospitalized with this illness,” adding that “the last remaining patient has recovered and returned home.”
City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who lives on the Upper East Side, said she was “saddened by the news that two additional New Yorkers died.”
“The toll this outbreak has had on dozens of impacted families, and on our neighborhood as a whole, is truly devastating,” she said.
Menin announced that the “City Council will closely examine how this tragic outbreak occurred and what additional actions and policies are needed to better protect New Yorkers” during their hearing next Wednesday.
Martin said scientists will continue to work on matching samples from contaminated water cooling towers with samples from patients sickened by the disease.
The city expects the findings in September and will be shared publicly.
The death toll from the outbreak on the Upper East Side surpassed last year’s deadly Harlem cluster — where seven people died from the disease.
More people, however, were sickened in the Harlem outbreak, with a total of 114 cases and 90 hospitalizations, according to city data.
Dozens of water cooling towers atop buildings on the Upper East Side tested positive for the bacteria behind this year’s outbreak — including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cooper Hewitt, the Guggenheim Museum and several ritzy private schools.
But in Harlem last year, water cooling towers above city-owned properties, including Harlem Hospital, were linked to the grim outbreak.
Grieving families and survivors of the deadly 2025 Harlem cluster sued the Big Apple earlier this month in a trio of lawsuits — including a wrongful death claim involving five of the seven people who died.
