Rospotrebnadzor’s statement of Wednesday, as Interfax carried it at 14:55 Moscow time, says preventive and anti-epidemic measures were carried out in full, that epidemic risks for the population of Irkutsk and the region are absent, that medical observation is complete for more than 90% of the contacts, about 200 people by the count Meduza carried on 2 October, with no illness linked to infection found, and that almost 5,000 laboratory tests, their object unnamed, found no dangerous pathogenic microorganisms. Two biosafety commissions, one of them an expert commission sent by the agency’s head Anna Popova, found no accidents in work with pathogens at the institute, the agency says, and it says the patient was vaccinated and immune to the dangerous infections she worked with. Three ministries read the same Russian page and set three dials: thermometers, checks and no measures.
The diagnosis on the Russian side stays what the agency announced on 4 October, pneumonia of unspecified etiology in an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, and the agency sent its information to the WHO under the International Health Regulations, Interfax reported at 14:41. ECDC’s note of 6 October calls the case pneumonia suspected to be pneumonic plague in a laboratory worker who died, with no reports of secondary cases, and gives no basis beyond the reports it monitors. Donald Trump said at the White House that he hopes the situation is under control and that he would like more information, by Interfax at 20:47.
Three ministries read the same Russian page and set three dials: thermometers, checks and no measures.
“Low risk” is the conclusion of Mongolia’s professional bodies, Health Minister E. Batshugar said on Wednesday, ikon.mn reported at 15:30 Ulaanbaatar time, adding that temperatures are measured at the border, that isolation rooms are prepared for any feverish case at risk, and that Russia’s information is that sampling showed no signs of plague. The National Centre for Zoonotic Diseases relayed the Russian count as it stood that morning, 60% of the contacts released, with two COVID-19 and two rhinovirus findings among those tested, and Mongolia’s embassy in Moscow advised citizens travelling to Irkutsk region to look after their health, listing its consulates in Irkutsk, Kyzyl and Ulan-Ude, by ikon.mn on Thursday.
An operational working group is monitoring reports and the measures will follow established procedures as further information comes, including enhanced checks and temperature screening for people arriving in Armenia, Health Minister Anahit Avanesyan told the National Assembly’s question hour, Armenpress reported at 20:23 Yerevan time, and the ministry works with the WHO for a full picture. “There is no reason for panic or false alarm,” Georgia’s Mikheil Sarjveladze said after the government sitting, by InterPressNews at 13:10: the location is very far from Georgia, the Centre for Disease Control follows the WHO’s updates, and no measures are indicated.
Five statements of the weekend and Monday precede the three. Kazakhstan’s health ministry tightened sanitary control at the border and rated the import risk low, Kyrgyzstan’s put every sanitary-quarantine checkpoint on heightened alert, Uzbekistan’s sanitary-epidemiological committee raised the readiness of its services, and Azerbaijan’s ministry saw no need for restrictions, naming fifty years without a plague case, by Ulysmedia’s digest of 5 October. Tajikistan tightened sanitary control at the border, a health ministry department head told Asia-Plus, by its report of 7 October.
The WHO’s director-general asked Moscow on Wednesday to clarify media reports of a second institute worker ill with pneumonia of unknown cause, and Dmitry Peskov answered that most of what the media carry about the situation is false and that only Rospotrebnadzor’s statements should be relied on, by AFP as ikon.mn carried it on Thursday. By the same account the WHO’s own assessment of Tuesday put the risk below average for Irkutsk region and low for Russia. The Russian diagnosis stands at unspecified etiology, ECDC’s suspicion stands in its note of 6 October, and no later official text from either side has replaced them.