Russia: WHO not able to 'fully' assess plague situation

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it could not fully assess the situation of  the suspected plague death of a laboratory employee in Russia.

"We don't yet have the full picture of this event and we're not able to conduct a full risk assessment," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov played down the reports as "false information," insisting only Russian authorities' official statements should be relied on.

Peskov also said he had no information regarding a planned call between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation, despite Trump announcing such a call was scheduled.

The US did make a formal request for more information on the matter from Russia, the AFP news agency reported.

Second suspected case reported

This comes after a 28-year-old female technician employed at a plague research institute in the Irkutsk region of Siberia died of the disease, possibly contracting it from a broken test tube.

According to the WHO head, Russia should clarify reports of a "second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause" at the institute.

While the United States, the European Union and the WHO have all called on Moscow to be transparent about the case, Russian authorities insist the population in the region is safe.

"There are no epidemic risks for the population," the country's health agency said, adding its investigations had resulted in "no emergencies" and emphasizing the plague research institute's compliance.

"More than 90 percent of contacts have completed medical observation," the agency added. "The results of almost 5,000 laboratory tests did not reveal any dangerous pathogenic microorganisms."

In response to the reports, Mongolia said it implemented "health surveillance and monitoring measures" at the border between the two countries.

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Edited by: Sean Sinico

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