Rhode Island news | projo.com | The Providence Journal

« DA: Swansea horse trainer had photos of children | Today | Fire Chief: Pawtucket mill fire suspicious »

March 29, 2007

Update: Coventry eatery closes; Health investigates

COVENTRY – As the state Health Department continues to investigate a likely norovirus outbreak among party-goers who were at Nino’s on Lake Tiogue Sunday, the restaurant’s owner voluntarily agreed this morning to close and sanitize the business before reopening.

The Health Department will re-inspect the restaurant before it opens again for business, said Ernest Julian, chief of the department’s office of food protection. A man who answered the restaurant’s phone this afternoon declined to comment.

The Health Department has already inspected the restaurant this week, after a call on Tuesday from a patron who became sick after eating there. The department is investigating whether a failed septic system outside the restaurant Sunday morning led to the illnesses of about half the people who attended a christening party at noon that day and more illnesses that are being reported by people who attended another, much larger party at the same restaurant that night.

After state epidemiologists interviewed about 20 of the approximately 65 people who attended the noontime party at Nino’s on Lake Tiogue, located at 446 Tiogue Ave., they’ve estimated that at least 30 people from that party became ill with symptoms consistent with norovirus, Julian said.

Norovirus – which used to be called Norwalk virus – causes vomiting and diarrhea that typically lasts for one or two days, Julian said.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

With the Tuesday report, the Health Department began investigating right away, Julian said. The first things to look for are whether an employee had been sick, whether employees have been washing their hands and whether employees are using bare hands to prepare ready-to-eat food, which they should not do, he said.

Epidemiologists found no report of an ill worker, don’t know of any problems with employees not washing their hands and believe the restaurant workers routinely wear gloves when handling ready-to-eat food, Julian said. What they did learn is that the septic system pump failed mid-morning on Sunday, sending sewage running out a manhole cover in the restaurant’s parking lot and into Lake Tiogue, near the restaurant, Julian said.

“We know that happened,” Julian said. “The question is: Is that related?”

The department is also examining whether some type of food delivered to the restaurant could have been contaminated, he said.

Once reports in the media surfaced last evening about the illnesses among those attending the christening party, the health department’s phone lines “started lighting up,” Julian said. People who attended a party Sunday night that drew about 250 parents and students from St. Joseph’s School in West Warwick have begun reporting similar illnesses, he said.

It’s too early to say how many people from that evening party may have fallen ill, he said this afternoon.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 2:28 PM | Permalink

March 29, 2007

Update: Coventry eatery closes; Health investigates

Comments

Post a comment