Seattle health officials have closed a South Lake Union Chipotle restaurant for repeated food-safety violations amid nationwide problems for the fast-food chain.
By  
Seattle Times health reporter
Seattle health officials closed a South Lake Union Chipotle restaurant Thursday for repeated food-safety violations.
The move to shutter the Mexican-style restaurant, at 212 Westlake Ave., comes more than a month after the fast-food chain closed 43 sites in Washington and Oregon amid an E. coli outbreak that eventually sickened 52 people in nine states and sent 20 people to hospitals.
It also comes in a week when more than 120 students at Boston College were sickened by norovirus after eating at a single Chipotle restaurant, health officials reported.
In the most recent Seattle case, the restaurant received red violations on three consecutive visits from health inspectors, according to a blog by officials at Public Health — Seattle & King County.
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Red violations are those most likely to contribute to foodborne illness. In each of the inspections, the restaurant accrued between 25 and 33 points out of 400 possible, well below the 90-point threshold that requires closure. But because the location had repeated violations, health officials ordered it closed.
Inspection records showed failure to maintain hot food at proper temperatures.
Staff will need to correct the violations, meet about the problems, pay a fine and pass an inspection.
Nationwide, Chipotle has faced problems with salmonella, E. coli and norovirus in recent months.
JoNel Aleccia: 206-464-2906 orjaleccia@seattletimes.com. On Twitter @JoNel_Aleccia