A SECOND company has been handed improvement notices by the Health and Safety Executive in its probe into Scotland's worst Legionnaires' disease outbreak for decades.
The notices were served on pharmaceutical firm Macfarlan Smith Ltd, in Gorgie in the outbreak zone in the south-west of Edinburgh, and call for "thorough cleaning" of one of its cooling towers and provision of access for inspection and maintenance.
HSE said serving the notices does not mean that the tower has been identified as the source of the outbreak and visits to other companies are ongoing. The watchdog has already served an improvement notice on North British Distillery Company, which is also in Wheatfield Road.
Macfarlan Smith said it voluntarily shut down a small cooling tower on its site on Sunday as a precaution. The news came as there were two more confirmed cases and a further four suspected cases in the Scottish capital.
The Scottish Government said there are now 39 confirmed cases and 49 suspected cases. A total of 14 people are in intensive care while 26 are on general wards. A total of 18 cases are being treated in the community, 22 have been discharged from hospital and one person has died.
Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said: "With a 14 day incubation period, we would expect there to be fluctuations over the next week or so."
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