Mamdani insists NYC Legionnaires outbreak is under control as death toll climbs to 5, with 82 infected

Mayor Zohran Mamdani insisted the Legionnaires’ outbreak was under control Wednesday as he faced mounting questions over his administration’s response while the deal toll climbed to five with more than 80 people becoming infected.“I’m frankly less interested in the politics of it all, more in the public health of it,” Mamdani quipped during an unrelated press conference after being asked about City Council Speaker Julie Menin’s criticism of his Department of Health’s handling of the outbreak in a recent op-ed for The Post.Families of the five New Yorkers who died and the 82 who were sickened “deserve … real answers” from City Hall, Menin fumed.She charged that DOH officials “failed New York” by not proactively disinfecting cooling towers in Upper Manhattan, where the cluster of cases has spread.The flu-like illness is caused by breathing in mist or water drops with Legionella bacteria, and can lead to severe lung infections that can be more dangerous for the elderly, smokers and those with weakened immune systems.Health Commissioner Dr.

Alister Martin said the city thinks it has “eliminated” the origin of the outbreak by treating cooling towers in the Upper East Side cluster area.But officials have yet to publicly identify the source, saying DNA sequencing is still pending.DOH officials said that of those infected since the outbreak started on the Upper East Side last month, 21 people currently have the disease and more eight remain hospitalized.“Furthermore, we believe that we have now eliminated the source of the initial cluster.

There has been no one with new symptoms reported in more than 10 days and no new diagnoses in a week,” Martin said.Mamdani defended his approach, saying that public health experts told him that pre-emptively disinfecting could hurt the city’s ability to mitigate high risk cooling towers and could weaken their ability to protect against the disease in the future.Over using disinfectants can cause corros...