The hospital is accepting emergency cases only

Doctors at the hospital discovered the first cases on Tuesday night when patients began showing symptoms.

By Wednesday the virus had spread and several members of staff had to be sent home.

On Thursday Monklands Hospital closed its doors to all but the most serious emergency admissions.

Patients with minor injuries and complaints were referred to Law Hospital in Carluke.

A statement from the hospital on Friday confirmed that SRSV had been identified as the cause of the vomiting and diarrhoea outbreak.

Infection control

It said that the number of cases among patients had risen to 27 with 16 members of staff also affected.

Dr John Logan, consultant in public health medicine with Lanarkshire Health Board said: "The number of patients affected by this outbreak has lessened over the last 24 hours.

"Infection control measures are in place and arrangements have been made to meet the clinical needs of patients."

Infected patients are being removed from wards

He added that measures for controlling the virus would be reviewed on Saturday.

At present any patient diagnosed with the infection is being moved to a designated area within the hospital.

The incubation period for SRSV is normally between 24 and 48 hours.

The virus usually resolves itself without medical treatment but those affected are always advised to consume plenty of fluids.

The outbreak of SRSV at Monklands Hospital comes one week after a viral infection at two Ayrshire hospitals caused the cancellation of 50 operations.