Seven babies hit by maternity unit infection One mother of a baby girl in the unit told the BBC's Stephen Nolan show that she was anxiously waiting for the results. "She's just seven weeks old and was born at just 24 weeks, weighing just one pound seven ounces," she said. She has come so far, past illness and the fact that she could get sick again - we really don't want to think about it. The neonatal room at the Royal is being emptied after the outbreak and will undergo a deep clean over the weekend. The large intensive care room, which can take up to 13 babies, was being cleared yesterday and the infants are being separated into small rooms ahead of the cleaning operation. Two heavily pregnant women have been forced to travel 100 miles to Dublin to have their babies because of the outbreak. The bacteria can cause infections in the chest, blood and urinary tract. In regard to the death in Londonderry in December, officials said that the strain of the infection, which was subsequently eradicated within the hospital, was different from the one that has hit the Royal's maternity unit and there was no evidence that the outbreaks were linked. Edwin Poots, Stormont Health Minister, has received regular briefings from health officials as the situation developed. The infection control team is now in the process of trying to identify the source of the infection and our health and social care system is in a good position to make sure all babies receive the neonatal care they require. He stressed that the neonatal unit is the only part of the hospital affected by the Pseudomonas outbreak and the delivery wards and all other services at the Royal are operating as normal. Expectant mothers should attend their appointments as scheduled, he added. Colm Donaghy, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust chief executive, said they would be carrying out a full investigation into whether anything else could have been done. The first death happened on January 6 and the second on January 13. Doctors first became aware that there was a problem with the infection on Monday night when the laboratories reported it.