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Guggenheim Museum among 31 NYC buildings infected with Legionnaires bacteria

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The Guggenheim Museum is among the 31 Upper East Side buildings where the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease was detected, officials revealed.

The museum, at 1071 Fifth Ave., and the owners of 18 other properties have already cleaned and disinfected their tainted water-cooling towers, according to the city Department of Health, which on Friday identified all of the infected properties by address.

The other 12 buildings were ordered to complete the deep cleaning to eradicate the Legionella bacteria by Saturday. It is not yet clear if they all complied with the timeframe.

The Guggenheim — which has an average of 1,100 daily visitors — was not ordered to shut down at any point, the DOH said.

The museum told The Post Saturday it took immediate remediation steps after it learned of the presence of Legionella bacteria.

“The city has confirmed that there is no additional action needed at this time, and this poses no risk to anyone inside the building,” a Guggenheim spokesperson said, adding that the museum conducts monthly cooler tower testing and treatment.

“The safety of our staff and the public are the utmost priority, and we are continuing to follow all city guidelines.”

The museum would not say if it had reached out to patrons who may have visited when Legionella bacteria were in the cooling system.

The city has issued a blanket warning to anyone who lives, works or has visited the infected neighborhood since late June to immediately contact a health care provider upon developing flu-like symptoms.

The full list of infected buildings released on the city’s preliminary list is:

The cluster of buildings was screened through a polymerase chain reaction test — which cannot indicate whether the bacteria are alive or dead.

Only live bacteria can cause the potentially devastating illness.

The cluster of buildings was screened through a polymerase chain reaction test — which cannot indicate whether the bacteria are alive or dead.

It’s also still not clear which building could have been the source of the outbreak.

The investigation will continue through the weekend — meaning more buildings could be added to the infected list.

It takes two weeks for the test results to be returned.

At least 46 people have been diagnosed with Legionnaires, including 22 who remain hospitalized.

The city so far has tested 183 cooling towers on the Upper East Side since the July 2 outbreak, officials said.

More than half of the neighborhood’s cooling towers had been dinged by health officials during their latest inspections — including some who failed to perform regular monitoring and cleaning and failing to submit Legionella test results to the health department, as required by law, records show.

Health officials emphasized that it is safe to use air conditioners and cooling centers in the neighborhood despite the outbreak.

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