AP report at that health officials say three people died and at least five more were sickened after eating Thanksgiving dinner at an event organized by a church in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Sutter Delta Medical Center in Antioch said Monday it received eight patients with probably food borne symptoms between Friday and Saturday. It says three of the patients died, four patients were treated and released and one remains hospitalized.
San Francisco television station KTVU reports Golden Hills Community Church confirmed it hosted the dinner at the American Legion Hall in Antioch on Thanksgiving. A call to the church was not immediately returned.
The Contra Costa Public Health Department is investigating and says there is no current risk to the general public.
UPDATE: At least 17 people were sickened in the outbreak of a foodborne illness that apparently killed three in East Contra Costa County, authorities said Tuesday, as evidence mounted that the cause was a church-sponsored Thanksgiving dinner in which much of the food was prepared in homes.
A day after saying that a county health permit was not required for the community dinner that served more than 800 people at the American Legion Hall in Antioch, Contra Costa County health officials said Tuesday they will now investigate whether a permit should be required of Brentwood’s Golden Hills Community Church next year, if the dinner continues. Such a permit would subject its serving facilities to a county health inspection and require that no food be served that was prepared in private homes or from unlicensed facilities.
The Antioch meal’s organizer, Jeff Oransky, said that the instant mashed potatoes and stovetop stuffing were made at the American Legion site and the green beans were warmed up there, but everything else was brought in from the homes of volunteers.
Those who fell sick range in age from their “teens to their 70s,” Underwood said.
The three people who died came to the event from two assisted living facilities, Minerva’s Place and Minerva’s Place IV, according to a spokesman for the Department of Social Services, a further indication that the community dinner was the source of the illness.
The facilities are two of four assisted living residential care facilities for the elderly operated by Minerva in southwest Antioch.