Chipotle E. Coli Outbreak Expands to Nine States, Says CDC

Chipotle's E. Coli outbreak has now involved nine states, as the Mexican restaurant continues to be involved in new outbreaks, according to CNN. Illinois, Pennsylvania And Maryland have been added to the list that already includes California, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Washington.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that seven more people have reported being ill in the last two weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal. To date, 52 people have become ill with E. Coli within a week of eating at a Chipotle restaurant in October and November, with 20 having been hospitalized.

Symptoms include diarrhea and abdominal pain within two to eight days after exposure to the bacteria. While the symptoms resolve in about a week for most, there are more vulnerable people that can develop kidney failure, or even death.

The restaurant chain said that it is continuing to work with federal, state and local health officials to investigate the outbreak. They have not yet identified a single food source or menu item as the culprit.

Chipotle announced several new food safety measures Friday, including increasing employee training for safe food handling and a high-resolution testing of all fresh produce to detect pathogen presence before the foods are shipped to the restaurants.

Figures have yet to show how the E. Coli crisis has affected Chipotle with the bad publicity involved, but Chipotle plans to provide financial updates for a presentation to analysts and investors on Tuesday, according to the New York Daily News. The company's shares did fall by 2.7 percent to $550.25 in trading Friday afternoon.