The latest on NYC's Legionnaires' outbreak: cases, hospitalizations

The Legionnaires' disease outbreak is still spreading in Manhattan's Upper East Side.

Officials are still investigating, but have emphasized to New Yorkers in the affected areas that they can continue to still drink tap water, shower, cook and use AC units at home.

Here's the latest as of Thursday, July 9.

Latest on Upper East Side Legionnaires' disease investigation

The city's health department continues to investigate a community cluster in Carnegie Hill and Yorkville, two areas in the Upper East Side, with the affected zip codes being: 10028, 10128, and 10075.

If multiple people become infected within a neighborhood, a typical source would be a cooling tower, hot tub or spray fountain, NYC Health wrote on its website.

Mark Levine, the city's comptroller, said this current cluster of cases is from a contaminated cooling tower, and not a water system. In another post, Levine said that "it takes two weeks or so to grow legionella samples in the lab so we will not get the location of contaminated towers right away."

Legionnaires' disease cases

As of late July 8, the number of current cases in the area is 36, with 22 hospitalizations. Just the day before, there had been 28 cases and 21 hospitalizations.

None of those cases have been fatal so far.

The city continues to urge those who live in or have visited the ZIP codes above to get medical care if they show flu-like symptoms, including:

• headaches and muscle aches
• fever
• coughing and shortness of breath
• chest pain
• nausea
• confusion

Source: Mayo Clinic

How does Legionnaires' disease spread?

People are at risk of getting Legionnaires' disease if they breathe in water vapor contaminated with the bacteria.

The health department emphasized that residents cannot get it through drinking water, cooking or from using AC units, and Legionnaires' disease is not contagious.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The latest on NYC's Legionnaires' outbreak: cases, hospitalizations

Reporting by Amethyst Martinez, USA TODAY NETWORK / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published July 9, 2026 at 7:36 AM.