Health officials in Washington state say the number of E. coli cases linked to Chipotle restaurants has increased to 29 people in that state. Of those, 11 people have been hospitalized.
Oregon revised it's count Wednesday to 10 people sickened, down from 12. Health officials say the number of cases linked to E. coli will continue to fluctuate as investigators learn more.
Washington Department of Health officials also said they've further sub-typed the strain of E. coli they suspect is involved in the outbreak. That means they should be able to determine whether each individual case is linked to the larger outbreak, or whether someone was infected with E. coli in another way.
Dr. Katrina Hedburg, the Oregon State Health Officer, said the strain of E. coli is 026.
During a news conference Tuesday, she said it's not uncommon for a few people to be sickened by isolated cases of E. coli in any given month.
"Even if one of these is an 026, they may not be linked to this outbreak and that's why we need to do the further sub-typing," she said.
Chipotle chairman Steve Ells has expressed his company’s "deepest sympathies" to those affected by the disease outbreak.
