A police officer who ended up in hospital amid fears he had been exposed to a nerve agent has tested negative for Novichok.

The police officer was taken to Salisbury District Hospital on Saturday after first attending Great Western Hospital in Swindon.

A Salisbury District Hospital spokesman said: “The police officer who was transferred to Salisbury District Hospital this evening has been tested and does not require any treatment. This individual was not poisoned by a nerve agent.

“The individual has left the hospital site. The transfer of this person to Salisbury District Hospital was always a highly precautionary measure.”

“We would like to reiterate the advice from Public Health England that the risk to the wider public remains low,” the hospital added in an earlier statement.

A Salisbury District Hospital spokesperson said that many members of the public had sought medial advice after the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March.

This comes just days after a couple were left in a critical condition after being exposed to the nerve agent Novichok in Amesbury.

Charlie Rowley, 45, and Dawn Sturgess, 44, remain in hospital after they became ill in Amesbury – eight miles from Salisbury where the Skripals were poisoned.

Forensic investigators are continuing to comb for clues in Wiltshire after the latest Novichok poisonings.

Investigators wearing camouflage protective clothing entered the John Baker House assisted-living accommodation in Salisbury, where mother-of-three Sturgess lives, after they took a sample from the outside of the building on Friday.

Other sites visited by the couple in the lead-up to their hospitalisation are also being looked at, as detectives piece together a timeline of their movements.

Officers have spoken to several key witnesses and are trawling through more than 1,300 hours of CCTV footage which has been collected so far.

Police have been unable to locate the source of the contamination and have not ruled out the possibility of more people falling ill from coming into contact with the substance left over after the Skripals were targeted.

One theory understood to be under investigation is whether the pair inadvertently found the container used to transport the nerve agent in the Skripal attack.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid visited Amesbury on Sunday and said there were “no current plans” to impose fresh sanctions on Russia.

He told the Press Association: “We don’t want to jump to conclusions.

“Clearly what we have already determined, what our expert scientists have determined, is that the nerve agent in this incident is the exact same nerve agent as was used back in March (when Sergei and Yulia Skripal were poisoned).

“We know back in March that was the Russians. We know it was a barbaric inhuman act by the Russian state. Again for this particular incident we need to learn more and let the police do their work.”

Asked if secrecy had been prioritised over public safety, Javid said: “No, I think the advice both from the first incident and now was absolutely correct.

“There is no evidence at this point that the two individuals hurt by this incident visited any of the areas that the Skripals visited.

“That said, I think everyone would want to listen to the advice of the professionals and make sure we take some precautions.”

The cabinet minister, who visited the site for around 25 minutes in total, met with Angus Macpherson, the Conservative police and crime commissioner for Wiltshire and Kier Pritchard, the Wiltshire police chief constable.

He also briefly met some residents inside the police cordon, but others said they were disappointed he did not talk with them.

Carol Gibson, who moved into the road around five weeks ago from London, said: “Even if he’d just come over for a minute it would have been nice.

“The MP (John Glen) made the point of coming to speak to us and said these visits are managed for him.

“But the man has a brain as well, he could have come over to say a sentence.”