Mexican grill restaurant, Chipotle, shuts down today due to an employee testing positive for norovirus. According to Buzzfeed, Chipotle shuts down for cleaning immediately after this incident occurred. As reported in Food Safety News, the facility shut down right away when other employees tested positive right away for norovirus.
Spokesman for the Massachusetts Chipotle restaurant, Chris Arnold, said as reported in Food safety News:
"After learning that four of our employees were not feeling well, our restaurant in Billerica, MA was closed for a full sanitization."
However, Arnold assured that the customers' illnesses are not in any way related to the norovirus epidemic. Arnold has not disclosed as to when the facility would be open again to the public. Furthermore, he has not disclosed whether or not the food is to be destroyed.
The closure comes just after one month the restaurant chain had an emergency morning meeting. The meeting's purpose was to discuss food safety protocols in general for the food chain. Founder and CEO, Steve Ells, answered questions about food and workplace issues that arose in January, according to The New York Daily News. These issues include: granting sick leaves for employees so they can rest when they are not feeling well, DNA testing of foods and regulations to better prepare foods at the facilities.
In 2015, a norovirus epidemic in California instigated a criminal investigation, sources said. Word has it that prosecutors subpoenaed Chipotle's food safety records back then. On December 2015, there was also a norovirus epidemic outbreak in Boston.
Customers decreased as Chipotle deals with E Coli and salmonella epidemics in 2015, as reported in Buzz Feed. It was unclear as to whether all of the employees would test for norovirus in the said Massachusetts facility.
Chipotle is being sued by the victims of norovirus and their families. In total, 100 civil claims have been allegedly filed against Chipotle, as reported in Food Safety News. Many high school students and one parent were among the complainants of these civil claims. These people got sick during the norovirus epidemic outbreak in Simi Valley, California. 1,000 complainants could be after the this said case.
Stockholders are also seeking federal legal claims against Chipotle. The claims state that Chipotle was in violation of The Securities Exchange Act regulations when the former made false and/or misleading statements.
The federal contenders claim that Chipotle's regulations violated the consumer and workplace safety regulations. Contenders claim that Chipotle violated consumer and employee health rights, in this regard.