Case Study $3-$ Cleaning & Sanitising

Sarah works as a chef at a local leagues club. Her duties include preparing raw ingredients, cooking, and plating dishes prior to service. As part of her uniform, she carries a tea towel around with her to dry her hands and wipe down minor spills.

Sarah's first shift after being sick with a $\text{'}24-$hour bug' is for multiple Fathers' Day functions at the club over the course of a weekend. Sarah needs the money as she is soon to go on holidays. Sarah informs her manager that she has recovered from being sick and that it was only a minor sore throat. She confides to a colleague that she was quite sick yesterday with stomach cramps and diarrhoea but woke up this morning feeling much better so wanted to work to earn additional money for her upcoming holiday.

The Tuesday morning after Fathers' Day, the local Food Authority receives a consumer complaint from a group of ten people who ate at the leagues club Sarah works at$.$ Over the next $2$ days, six more complaints are received by the Food Authority on behalf of groups who ate at the Leagues club. In total, $78$ people experience illness after eating at the leagues club over the Fathers' Day weekend. Clinical assessment reveals all $78$ patients suffered from the same strain of Norovirus. The Food Authority investigates the leagues club and swabs from an oven handle tested positive for the same strain of Norovirus as the $78$ patients.

The Food Authority issues a Prohibition Order for the leagues club, shutting it down for two weeks so that the kitchen can be thoroughly disinfected. The Food Authority fines Sarah $$440$ separate to the business for breaches of the Food Standards Code. The leagues club also appears on the Food Authority's public Name and Shame register for two years for failing to exclude their ill chef from any contact with food and other workers.

Identify why Sarah is the likely source of the viral gastro $($Norovirus$)$ outbreak.