10 Dead in Legionnaires’ Outbreak

New York City officials said Thursday that an outbreak of Legionnaires disease in the South Bronx has killed an additional two people, bringing the death toll to 10. Mayor Bill de Blasio said building owners in the city will be required to test and disinfect their water-cooling towers in the next two weeks, because the bacteria that causes the disease has been found in five cooling towers in the South Bronx. Officials have yet to determine which tower is directly responsible for the outbreak. “I want to emphasize at the outset that the vast majority of buildings in New York City do not have these cooling towers,” de Blasio said. “They tend to be found in bigger, more modern buildings, but any building that does have one of these cooling towers will be subject to this order.”