A LARGE hotel in Dublin has had to cancel a number of Christmas events and suspend its food and beverage service after a suspected outbreak of the winter vomiting bug in its catering services.
John Glynn, manager of the Regency Hotel in Drumcondra, said he had received “between 50 and 100” calls from people who had dined there last week complaining of being ill afterwards.
The HSE had also received a number of complaints.
“The hotel was exceptionally busy last week at lunch, dinner, cabarets and Christmas parties,” Mr Glynn added.
“Last Thursday a number of people were in touch saying they had been at a function on the Wednesday night and were not well.
“On the Friday evening the HSE was in touch saying they had had calls, and they visited the hotel and took samples from all the menus, including ice and water, which was stored in fridges over the weekend, to be examined in their labs.”
He said a colleague had a number of calls over the weekend from people also complaining of feeling unwell after eating in the hotel.
“I am a long time in the business, and had not experienced the volume of calls before, so I decided to get professional decontaminators in.”
He said all food and beverage operations in the hotel had been suspended since yesterday morning while all food and drink service areas were decontaminated, a process he said would take 48 hours.
“We have had to cancel two events, affecting about 500 people, which is a pity but the people are very grateful and understanding of the stance I have taken.
“The suspicion is, I am told, that the bug is the norovirus, which is the virus that brings on the symptoms of the winter vomiting. That will have to be confirmed in the next day or so.”
He said that when the virus – which causes approximately 90 per cent of epidemic outbreaks of gastroenteritis around the world – was brought into a food preparation or serving environment, it could contaminate the food.
