Mexican food chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill has indicated that it planning to reopen its outlets in Washington state and Oregon as soon as Wednesday this week following concerns over an outbreak of E. coli bacteria from the eateries.

Health officials have said that a batch of tests found no E. coli bacteria in food samples indicating the closed outlets might reopen soon. Public health officials have said that they are still working to identify the cause of the E. coli food poisoning that affected 43 people. Most of them had dined at Chipotle restaurants in the greater Seattle and Portland areas. All of the company's 43 outlets in the area were closed since 31 October, 2015 to stop the disease outbreak.

Washington state's epidemiologist for communicable disease, Scott Lindquist said that Chipotle could start shipping produce to restaurants on Tuesday and Wednesday. The closed outlets are expected to reopen on Wednesday and Thursday after the company meets certain requirements. Lindquist also said that the Oregon locations are expected to open as soon as Wednesday.

The company is required to sanitize each restaurant and throw out all food items and also conduct pre-test on high-risk foods such as lettuce and peppers as it brings in new food. A county health official will continue to conduct inspection son the sites.