(Reuters) – Russia’s health regulator said on Tuesday that no cases of plague were detected among people who had contact with a female laboratory employee at the Siberian Pest Research Institute who died last week, and local residents said their lives were barely affected.
The authorities say that the 28-year-old woman died on Friday from pneumonia of as yet undetermined origin, in a case that generated international concern, including from the U.S. President Donald Trump.
Rospotrebnadzor, the regulatory body, stated in a release that no infectious disease had been reported among the employees of the same plague research institute in Irkutsk in the last 10 days and that extensive tests did not find, in the deceased’s body, any microorganism related to her work.
“A comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures was immediately organized and fully implemented in accordance with public health legislation,” the regulator said.
“This included identifying as many people as possible who had contact with the patient and arranging for them to be placed under medical observation in hospital, with daily laboratory tests.”
According to the agency, the results revealed two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection, but no pathogen causing other infectious diseases was detected.
“None of the contacts showed health changes associated with infectious diseases,” he added.
Elena Sofina, deputy head of the Shelekhov district, near Irkutsk, where a local hospital was put under quarantine, said that what she called a “dangerous diagnosis” had not been confirmed.
She added that 60% of those placed in quarantine as a precaution had already been released. Local media reported that about 200 people had been quarantined previously.
TRUMP’S OFFER OF ASSISTANCE
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov expressed gratitude for the offer of help made on Monday by Trump, though without making clear whether Moscow planned to accept it.
“It’s always good when mutual assistance is offered,” Peskov told reporters.
Trump described on Monday the situation as a “big problem for Russia.” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that it was up to Moscow to share more information.
The World Health Organization, in Geneva, said on Tuesday that Russia had reported there were no cases of plague in the city of Irkutsk. Reuters could not immediately determine whether this meant that plague could be ruled out in the case of the lab worker.
In the town of Shelekhov, where the lab worker was said to have died in hospital, locals said their lives were hardly affected, although they noted that some people in stores had initially worn surgical masks as a precaution.
A resident who identified herself only as Anna said the situation was calm and that people were prepared for the introduction of restrictions, but life continued essentially as usual.
“Everyone had masks at home and wore them for no more than 24 hours,” she told Reuters.
Denis, another resident, said that the news of the laboratory employee’s death had been widely discussed in the city and that the local hospital had temporarily suspended diagnostic testing, but had since resumed normal operations.
