Mayor Zohran Mamdani said Wednesday that the city will soon release the exact addresses of the buildings where the city has determined legionella bacteria is present in the cooling towers.
The cases, which include 22 people who are hospitalized, have been identified across three Upper East Side ZIP codes that include the neighborhoods of Carnegie Hill, Yorkville and Lenox Hill.
The severe form of pneumonia is contracted by inhaling airborne droplets and the health department believes it is being spread by contaminated mists from cooling towers.
"It's important to understand the risk here isn't coming from inside the building, it is coming from outside the building in these ZIP codes," said ABC News correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton.
City Hall says the testing of cooling towers on the Upper East Side should be completed by the end of the day Wednesday.
The health department will then put out a list of cooling towers of interest by the end of the week.
"We're going to be taking the step of releasing the addresses of wherever has been impacted, because we know that transparency is also a critical part of how New Yorkers can continue to go about their day," Mamdani said.
More testing will be required to determine which of those buildings is the actual source of the outbreak, and officials warn that process could take weeks.
Health officials emphasized that the outbreak is not linked to any building's plumbing system. Residents in the affected areas can continue to drink tap water, bathe, shower, cook and use their home air conditioning systems, according to the Health Department.
The disease isn't contracted person-to-person, and most healthy people will not get sick. But about one in every 10 people who get Legionnaires' is at risk of dying -- especially the elderly, smokers and those with health issues.
The outbreak last summer in Harlem killed seven people and infected more than 100.
"The symptoms of Legionella can look very much like your typical pneumonia - a fever cough, shortness of breath," Sutton said. "It can also cause gastrointestinal symptoms."
Health officials urged anyone experiencing flu-like or pneumonia-like symptoms to seek medical attention. They also warned that the number of confirmed Legionnaires' disease cases is expected to continue to rise as testing and investigations continue.
Understanding the latest Legionnaires' cluster on Upper East Side
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