A New York hotel is having a norovirus outbreak. Hundreds of people have become infected at the Hilton Westchester hotel.
Among those who were affected include Rye City Councilwoman Catherine. CBS2 had to interview her outside of her home as she didn't want to spread germs.
"All of a sudden I woke up feeling extremely queasy," Parker said. "The stomach cramps started kicking in at that point."
"The ball started rolling and we started finding out that a lot of our brunch guests were sick," Andrea Blount, another affected hotel guest said.
Roughly 825 guests attended a Delta Sigma Theta sorority brunch at the hotel and roughly 200 of them became sick after the April 21 event. The hotel had a few cases of the virus earlier in the week, but Parker said that the hotel told her that she would be fine attending the Friday night fundraiser event.
"Everything had been sanitized and that it was actually going to be the healthiest place in Westchester County to eat," Parker said.
However despite being told everything would be okay, Parker started becoming sick.
The Hilton Westchester has taken a series of steps to ensure that the virus doesn't spread any further.
They have gone through an industrial cleaning, with particular focus on the banquet halls. They put health staff and sanitarians around to make sure that staff members are following health department recommendations. The stopped their process of preparing uncooked foods on site and they have provided a 72-hour furlough to all banquet and kitchen staff.
Despite all of this going on, the hotel is staying open. The Westchester County Department of Health says they haven't been able to determine what caused the outbreak.
For guests still recovering from the sickness which causes symptoms such as vomiting and diarrhea, they won't be returning to the hotel for any events anytime soon.
"Not until they find out what the problem is and I hope they do," Blount said.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
