“The norovirus outbreak is clearly linked to food, as cases were identified simultaneously in 20 kindergartens. It must be urgently determined and announced which food was contaminated with the virus,” infectious disease specialist Maia Butsashvili wrote on social media, commenting on information released by the National Center for Disease Control. According to the Center, laboratory test results indicate that norovirus was highly likely to have been the cause of the vast majority of gastroenteritis cases in kindergartens.

According to her, such incidents are often linked to an infected person preparing or packaging food, or otherwise coming into contact with food.

“The National Center for Disease Control issued a statement saying that the outbreak in kindergartens is linked to norovirus. This means that by now we should already be seeing secondary cases, meaning infections among family members and close contacts, because norovirus is highly contagious and can spread from person to person through the fecal-oral route. Infection can also occur through contaminated surfaces.

It should be noted that this norovirus outbreak is clearly linked to food, as cases were identified simultaneously in 20 kindergartens. Therefore, this could not have been an infection spreading through ordinary transmission. It must now be urgently determined and announced which food was contaminated with the virus.

In many cases, such incidents are associated with an infected person preparing or packaging food, or having any kind of contact with food. All personnel working at facilities that supply food to kindergartens should be urgently tested - or, more accurately, they should have already been tested.

The virus can be detected in stool for two weeks. Therefore, it is currently easy to identify infected individuals. Alternatively, contaminated food may have already reached kindergarten distributors earlier.

In short, it must now be determined very quickly whether there is any contaminated product that is still being used anywhere,” Butsashvili wrote.