Met Museum, several pricey NYC prep schools among 76 buildings positive for bacteria behind Legionnaires outbreak

The bustling Metropolitan Museum of Art and several pricey Manhattan prep schools are among dozens of new buildings to test positive for the bacteria behind the growing Legionnaires’ disease outbreak on the Upper East Side.The buildings are among 76 that the New York City Health Department has ordered to thoroughly clean and disinfect their cooling towers after they tested positive for Legionella bacteria, as the outbreak has sickened 63 people and counting.The Met, along with 19 other properties, has been ordered to remediate its tainted water-cooling towers by Thursday, New York City Health Commissioner Dr.

Alister F.Martin said in a statement Tuesday.Multiple posh Upper East Side private schools have also been ordered to remediate their bacteria-infested cooling towers, including the all-girls Chapin School at 100 East End Ave., whose tuition boasts a hefty $68,250 price tag per year.Cooling towers atop buildings associated with the Spence School and the Dalton School — two ritzy K-12 college preparatory schools with tuition costs upwards of $70,000 — also tested positive for Legionella and will need to be cleaned and disinfected.Meanwhile, 57 buildings, including the Guggenheim Museum, have already completed the required remediation, according to the DOH.The latest number of buildings identified with Legionella-positive cooling towers is more than double the 31 addresses released by the health department on Friday.The health department has sampled a total of 183 cooling towers in the ZIP codes of 10028, 10128, and 10075.“We are inspecting every building with a positive PCR test for the presence of live or dead Legionella bacteria.

We will issue violations to building owners found not to have been properly maintaining their cooling towers,” Martin said in a statement.A spokesperson for the Met Museum said in a statement to The Post that the few activities scheduled for Wednesday, when the museum is typically closed, have been cancelled to support the ...