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Starbucks Employee With Hepatitis A Likely Exposed ‘Thousands’ to Virus

New Jersey health officials are scrambling to mobilize the largest hep A vaccine effort in the state’s history after an employee handled food while positive for the illness.

More than 800 people have been vaccinated against hepatitis A after a Starbucks employee tested positive for the disease after handling food at a New Jersey location, according to state health officials. The vaccine drive is the largest against hep A in the state’s history, according to county spokesperson Dan Keashen. “Starbucks says that that location is busy, as most are,” he said. “They’re saying they have an average of 600 patrons a day… but the exposure is probably in the thousands.”

Though Camden officials have secured 500 more doses for a pop-up clinic later this week, they have scrambled to get their hands on the limited number of vaccines available in New Jersey. “We had our public health department employees driving all over the state,” Keashen told CNN, “in some cases hundreds of miles, picking up vaccines across the state.” The Starbucks worker who tested positive for the disease, which infects the liver, is in recovery. So far, Keashen said, no one else is known to have contracted the virus as a result of the exposure.