Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium

NEW YORK — A cooling tower at Yankee Stadium was among 10 in the South Bronx that tested positive for Legionella bacteria, city health officials said Sunday, as they investigate a Legionnaires' disease cluster that has killed one person and sickened eight others.

The New York City Health Department ordered all 10 towers drained, cleaned and disinfected by Monday after polymerase chain reaction tests last Thursday detected Legionella DNA. Officials said the PCR results do not show whether the bacteria were alive, and only live Legionella can cause illness. Culture tests, which can take up to two weeks, are under way. The department has not named any tower as the source of the cluster.

"To reduce the risk of ongoing exposure while culture testing continues, the Health Department is requiring cooling towers with a positive PCR result to conduct a full remediation, including draining, cleaning, and disinfection," the department said.

The stadium tower is listed at 1 E. 161st St., the ballpark address. Other flagged sites include Lincoln Hospital at 234 E. 149th St. and Boricua College's Bronx campus at 890 Washington Ave. Inspectors sampled 24 cooling-tower systems in ZIP codes 10451 and 10456, covering parts of Melrose and Morrisania. Eight of the 10 positive towers had met the city's 31-day testing rule adopted in May. Two, at 820 Concourse Village West and 1265 Franklin Ave., had not filed required test records.

A Yankees spokesperson said the stadium tower was drained, cleaned and disinfected Sunday morning. The club said state-of-the-art towers installed in 2024 are tested monthly and that an Aug. 20 test was negative. "No current cases have been associated with Yankee Stadium," the team said. "Additionally, the New York City Department of Health has not at any point this month asked us to postpone our games." The Yankees hosted the Mets on Friday, Saturday and Sunday to close a six-game homestand. Officials said people who attended those games were at no greater risk than anyone else who was in the two ZIP codes.

NYC Health + Hospitals said Lincoln Hospital's tower had been fully remediated by Sunday evening.

As of Saturday, nine people were tied to the cluster: one dead, three still in the hospital, four discharged and one treated without admission. The city announced the first death on Friday. Health Commissioner Dr. Alister Martin, speaking at a virtual town hall for Melrose and Morrisania residents, described the PCR limit in plain terms. "The one limitation, the one thing wrong with the PCR test, is it can't tell us if the DNA is live legionella or dead," he said.

The department said it remains safe to shower, drink tap water and use air conditioners in the affected ZIP codes unless told otherwise. Cooling towers vent mist outdoors; they are not the building's drinking-water system. Legionnaires' disease is a severe pneumonia. People do not spread it person to person. Those at highest risk include older adults, smokers and people with lung disease or weakened immune systems. Symptoms include cough, fever, chills, muscle aches and shortness of breath, often two to 14 days after breathing contaminated mist.

"Anyone who lives, works, or has visited the area since late August and develops flulike symptoms should contact a health care provider immediately," the Health Department said.

New York has seen repeated cooling-tower clusters. The city tightened testing after earlier Bronx outbreaks. A positive PCR on a famous address does not equal a verdict. It is a screening hit that triggers cleaning while cultures decide whether the organisms could infect anyone. Until those cultures come back, the stadium is one of 10 addresses on a remediation list, the games went on, and the source of the nine cases is still unassigned.