TBILISI, September 22 – Georgia’s National Food Agency has inspected 70 facilities and collected 502 food and drinking water samples as it investigates a norovirus outbreak at public kindergartens in Tbilisi.
The agency said Tuesday that its inspectors had visited 48 public kindergartens in the capital, as well as food facilities including a meat processing plant and a dairy products warehouse. Inspections are taking place both in kindergarten kitchens and at businesses that produce or supply food.
Laboratory tests have so far found no food safety violations in 39 of the 502 samples collected. Testing of the remaining samples is continuing, with results to be released as they become available.
The inspections follow an outbreak of stomach illness that affected children at kindergartens across Tbilisi last week. Health officials said Sunday that laboratory findings pointed to norovirus as the likely cause of the great majority of cases. More than 100 children had required hospitalization, although officials reported no serious complications.
Although norovirus was identified as the infectious agent behind the symptoms, it is still unknown how the virus reached the children. The Food Agency’s latest findings have so far not identified a contaminated product that could have carried the virus.
