All of these students indicated that they had eaten at the Chipotle restaurant in Cleveland Circle during the past weekend. That month Norovirus was blamed for sickening almost 100 people at a Chipotle restaurant in Simi Valley, California and on October 31st, it was linked to an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 52 people in nine states. “We are testing for both E.coli and norovirus under the direction of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health”, said Dr. Thomas I. Nary, director of the University Health Services and Sports Medicine at Boston College.
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A Boston Chipotle franchise has been closed by health officials because 80 students became ill with the norovirus after they all ate at the same restaurant.
As many as 80 Boston College students, including basketball players, say they got sick after eating at Chipotle in Brighton, according to the school.
“Right now, we don’t have any indication that there are any issues with the Chipotle’s here”, Anderson said, though she added that the food chain is still investigating exactly what caused the students to fall ill.
According to the release from Chipotle, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 48 million cases of food-related illness in the US annually.
Chipotle officials said they are working to ensure food safety.
Rather, it’s norovirus – a highly contagious virus spread by an infected person.
Norovirus can persist in an environment for up to six weeks, said Benjamin Chapman, an associate professor and food safety specialist at North Carolina State University.
The Mexican food giant was forced to shut down their location near the college after the reports, when Boston city health officials found that the cooked chicken was being stored at far too low a temperature on site and an employee was found to be sick while at work.
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Chipotle’s shares, which fell as much as 5.4 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday, closed down 1.7 percent at $542.24.
