Overview
- Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin confirmed late Thursday that a second person has died and that at least 13 confirmed cases are linked to the South Bronx cluster in ZIP codes 10451 and 10456.
- City teams screened roughly two dozen cooling towers and found Legionella DNA in 10 sites, including towers at Yankee Stadium and Lincoln Hospital.
- Officials ordered the 10 towers that screened positive to be drained, cleaned and disinfected, and the city says those disinfection steps have been completed.
- PCR screening detects bacterial DNA quickly but cannot show whether bacteria are alive, so slower culture tests now under way will determine viable Legionella and whether specific towers are the source of infections.
- City health workers have conducted door-to-door outreach, distributed multilingual materials, held a local town hall and urged anyone who lived in, worked in or visited the area since late August to seek care for flu-like symptoms.