According to officials, a norovirus outbreak was behind sickening dozens of customers at a Ventura County Chipotle restaurant earlier this month. Previous week, the Ventura County Environmental Health Division started investigation when over 60 patrons fell ill after consuming food at the burrito chain's Simi Valley Towne Center location.

Now officials have said around 80 customers and 18 employees became ill with gastrointestinal symptoms in the week of August 18.

As per health officials, managers shut down the restaurant on Friday August 21. They threw out all left food and disinfected all surfaces. Health officials mentioned that next day reopened but the 18 employees who became sick were told to stay at home.

According to the inspection done in previous week and a follow-up inspection on Sunday, investigators have discovered some violations. They noticed dirty restrooms, unclean utensils or equipment; equipment linked to sewer lines; unsanitary floors, walls or ceilings, and insufficient food temperatures. They also found that many workers didn’t even have valid food handler cards. Even with those violations, the restaurant managed to pass both the inspections.

Mike Byrne of the Ventura County Environmental Health Division said that until now eight out of 18 samples reported by Chipotle employees have tested positive for norovirus. Byrne mentioned that employees, tested positive for norovirus will not be allowed to do food service duties until their tests show negative results.