The nature of the findings of a report, which concluded a hospital superbug “may have” contributed to eight patient deaths, were described by one of the report’s main authors as “woolly” and “not definitive”.

A total of 18 new patients with CPE were detected in the two-week period from February 5-18.

A public health emergency has been declared to combat the spread of a potentially lethal superbug detected in 306 patients to the end of September.