CMG Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc

An E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. restaurants has spread outside the Pacific Northwest, bringing the total number of cases to 45 people in six states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Friday.

Six new people have been found infected. Five of them are known to have eaten Chipotle before becoming ill, including two in Turlock, Calif., and one each in Akron, Ohio; Amherst, N.Y.; and Burnsville, Minn.

Shares of Chipotle fell 11% to $546.82 in Friday afternoon trading.

There have been no deaths, but 43 of the 45 had reported eating at a Chipotle in the week before becoming ill. Of the 45 people, 16 have been hospitalized.

In all, 26 people have been reported ill in Washington, 13 in Oregon, two each in California and Minnesota, and one each in New York and Ohio.

The CDC said Friday that a Chipotle meal item or ingredient is the likely source of the outbreak, but a specific food hasn't yet been identified. E. coli strains from the outbreaks in Washington and Minnesota that have been genetically sequenced are "highly related genetically to one another," the CDC said.

In a response to the now monthlong outbreak, in late October Chipotle closed 43 Washington and Oregon restaurants. Chipotle announced last week they were reopening the closed locations.

Chipotle said in a statement Friday that the "problem appears to have been contained during a period in late October." They said the vast majority of cases appear to have eaten at Chipotle between Oct. 13 and Oct. 30 with one person having eaten Nov. 6.

"We take this incident very seriously because the safety of our food and well-being of our customers is always our highest priority," Chief Executive Steve Ells said in a news release." We are committed to taking any and all necessary actions to make sure our food is as safe as possible."

Write to Austen Hufford at austen.hufford@wsj.com

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 20, 2015 16:15 ET (21:15 GMT)

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024

Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024