Overview

• At a City Council oversight hearing, Health Commissioner Michelle Morse supported a bill to require Legionella testing every 30 days and every 14 days during heat emergencies, calling the approach an experiment.
• More than 100 people were sickened, about 90 were hospitalized, and seven died in the Central Harlem outbreak, which the city has declared over after remediation.
• The health department said 12 local cooling towers tested positive and genetic analysis ultimately tied the cluster to two towers, including one at Harlem Hospital and another at a city construction site run by Skanska.
• Officials said Harlem Hospital complied with cooling‑tower rules, while investigators cited maintenance, monitoring and registration lapses at the construction‑site tower and are probing why it was not registered.
• Council members pressed on slower public communications and a drop in city inspections attributed to staffing shortages, and officials said they are recruiting more inspectors as lawsuits from patients and families are expected.