The World Health organization has confirmed that there are no health risks associated with the case of community-acquired pneumonia in the Russian city of Irkutsk.
Rospotrebnadzor (the Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare).
The agency explained that preventative measures had been fully implemented, confirming that there were no epidemic risks threatening the population. The agency had previously announced that an employee at the Irkutsk Plague Control Institute had tested positive.
Initial investigations revealed no incidents or security breaches during handling of disease-causing microorganisms, the same conclusions confirmed by an additional expert committee tasked with the audit based on the instructions of the agency's head, Anna Popova.
As a precautionary measure, all those who had been in contact with the infected person were placed under close medical supervision and subjected to daily laboratory tests.
These tests resulted in only two cases of coronavirus and two cases of rhinovirus infection (common cold), without revealing any other causes of infectious diseases.
On the other hand, these developments have attracted the attention of the US authorities, with the Washington Post reporting that Washington is preparing a diplomatic note to Russia to request additional information about the incident.
In this regard, the Kremlin called for relying exclusively on official data issued by the Rospotrebnadzor agency, while emphasizing that the World Health Organization had been informed of all the details related to this event since its beginning.