The move comes amid rising concerns about the spread of the mosquito-borne disease.

Trucks from the city’s health department rolled out to spray pesticides in Central Park and Upper Manhattan neighborhoods between 8.30pm Monday and 6am Tuesday.

The mass pesticide application will continue in parts of Brooklyn on Wednesday, including Bay Ridge and Coney Island, NYC’s health department (DOH) said.

The West Nile virus is a disease that most commonly spreads through the bite of infected mosquitoes. Over 280 cases of West Nile have been identified among 33 US states so far this year, according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The symptoms of West Nile virus include body aches, diarrhoea, fever, headache and vomiting. Among the most serious complications are meningitis, paralysis, even death.

New York City has confirmed six West Nile cases in 2024, all those infected are doing well and has not been hospitalised, but health officials are concerned that the transmission of the virus may increase from summertime into fall.

The city is continuing to monitor mosquito populations during the summer. The DOH sent out staff to 50 locations to trap and test mosquitoes and found the number of mosquitoes with West Nile virus ticked up across the board this summer throughout the five boroughs of the city.

“The recent data is showing if we don’t spray the transmission to human may occur,” Waheed Bajwa, DOH’s executive director of vector surveillance, told NBC. “We are focusing on areas where there is a high chance of disease transmission.”

Health officials have also urged residents to eliminate standing water from their property to help prevent mosquitoes from breeding.