On Monday, Chipotle temporarily closed a restaurant in Sterling, Virginia, following several reports of customers falling ill.
According to a report from NPR, the restaurant closed "to conduct a complete sanitization." In a statement to NBC News, Chipotle's head of food safety Jim Marsden said that the symptoms of those sickened were consistent with norovirus — a highly contagious virus.
"Norovirus does not come from our food supply, and it is safe to eat at Chipotle," Marsden clarified.
For the Denver-based chain, this is another in a long series of food safety issues, which began in the fall of 2015 with a series of foodborne illness outbreaks.
Boston health officials linked a norovirus outbreak that sickened more than 120 college students in 2015 to the restaurant and, in the same year, about 207 people in Simi Valley, California, also fell ill.
To recover its credibility with customers and improve its tarnished food safety record, Chipotle temporarily closed more than 2,000 restauant locations to re-train employees about food safety in February 2016. Since then, Chipotle has worked to overhaul its food safety procedures to convince customers that its food is safe to consume.
Marsden said the Virginia restaurant was expected to reopen later on Tuesday and said the company would continue to work with local health officials.
News of the Virginia restaurant closure sent Chipotle's stocks down, at one point, more than 7.5 percent in value.
