New outbreak at Chipotle sickens 5, CDC starts Investigation

Things are not going to be normal soon for the restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has found new outbreak, which is separate from previous cases.

The leading national public health institute of the United States announced Monday that the new outbreak involves bacteria different from previous outbreak linked to Chipotle. The agency said five cases of new outbreak have been reported in Kansas, North Dakota and Oklahoma. These people, who ate at a Chipotle restaurant, fell ill between November 18 and November 26, the CDC reported.

The new outbreak cases have been reported less than a week after Steve Ells, Founder and Co-Chief Executive at Chipotle, released a letter to apologize for outbreak that has sickened many people in different states. The letter was published in 60 newspapers across the country.

Earlier, Boston College announced that its 140 students, including some basketball team members, fell ill after eating at a Chipotle. The larger E. coli outbreak not only led Denver-headquartered Chipotle to see decline in its customer numbers, but also became the reason of the company’s falling share price. Chipotle's share price fell more than 3% in Monday trading, according to reports.

Chipotle has already announced that its fourth-quarter earnings may fall well below analysts’ forecasts. It also said that its same-store sales would drop 8% to 11% because of the incidents. Previous outbreak affected about nine US states.