Chipotle emergency: Authorities scramble to contain Norovirus outbreak

“We expect these numbers to keep evolving, but this is our current count”, said an e-mail from Ché Knight, spokeswoman for the Boston Public Health Commission. Now, Boston College announced on Monday that over 20 of its students, including eight of its men’s basketball players, have fallen sick after eating at a Chipotle restaurant.

Chipotle founder and co-CEO Steve Ells apologized for sickening so many Boston students, saying “This was a very unfortunate incident, and I’m deeply sorry that this happened”.

For the recently shuttered Seattle Chipotle, this isn’t the first time its doors have shut in recent times, as the location was temporarily closed-along with 43 other locations across Washington and Oregon-as a result of the recent E. coli outbreak that left 52 people sick between October 19 and November 13.

The Chipotle Mexican Grill seems to be in deeper trouble as fresh cases of gastrointestinal symptoms were reported earlier this week in various Boston college students who all seemed to have eaten from the restaurant.

Just hours after Chipotle Mexican Grill’s CEO Steven Ells pledged to become a food safety leader in the fast food industry, yet another restaurant in Seattle was shut down by health inspectors for multiple “food safety… We can not confirm a cause of the illness at this time, but we are coordinating with Boston public health officials to determine the cause”.

Health officials made a definitive declaration of the illness after tests for bacteria and pathogens were taken at the site of the restaurant where many were linked to have eaten. Since 2009, when the CDC began tracking outbreaks, it’s been much more common for fast-food restaurants to give their patrons salmonella (sit-down restaurants typically see a higher number of people infected with norovirus). The spokesperson also added that there are no evident links to any of the Chipotle restaurants and E. Coli. “There will be robust testing procedures that will need to be in place for all of our suppliers, whether large or small”, he said in a presentation in NY. In order to avoid getting infected, health officials recommend people to wash their hand regularly and avoid contact with the person who might be infected.