Last week the Tacoma Pierce County Department of Health connected an outbreak of norovirus illnesses to the Blazing Onion, a Gig Harbor, WA restaurant. At least 18 people were sickened, and at least one of them was hospitalized.
We have been contacted by one of the victims of this outbreak. You can contact our lawyers for a free consultation HERE.
Most norovirus outbreaks linked to restaurants are caused by a sick food handler. Norovirus is extremely contagious, so one sick food handler can easily infect many restaurant patrons.
Symptoms of norovirus virus include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain and headache.
These usually occur one to two days after initial infection and last from twenty-four to sixty hours. Norovirus can cause severe dehydration requiring hospitalization, which happened to at least one victim of this outbreak.
The Blazing Onion issued this statement:
“We received reports that some of our guests fell ill on Saturday. We immediately contacted the Pierce County health department, and together determined that this was not a food borne illness but an aggressive flu-like virus. Working together with the Health Department, we closed the restaurant for 24 hours and took additional sanitizing steps to ensure no further spreading of the virus.”