Hawick nursery E. coli incident team stood down

There has been insufficient evidence to link the E. coli cases at the nursery

An incident management team investigating E. coli O157 cases at a Borders nursery has been stood down.

It follows sampling from more than 100 people - including babies, children and adults - who could have been exposed to the infection.

NHS Borders said there had been insufficient evidence to link the cases at the Cherrytrees Nursery in Hawick.

As a result, it said no outbreak had been confirmed and the incident team had been stood down.

'Limit the spread'

Public health consultant Chris Allan said: "Thanks to the co-operation of the manager and staff of Cherrytrees Nursery and everyone involved in the management of the incident, we are pleased to have been able to rule out an outbreak in this situation.

"E. coli O157 can be fatal so the focus of the team was to limit the spread of infection in order to prevent serious harm as far as is possible.

"We recognise that the operational implications for the nursery were disruptive, and are pleased that the nursery is now open again as staff have been cleared to return to work."

A deep clean was being carried out at the site before it was reopened.