US President Donald Trump said on Monday that the United States was ready to provide assistance to Russia after an employee at a laboratory belonging to a plague research institute in Siberia died. The incident prompted Russian authorities to quarantine dozens of people, amid US calls for transparency over the circumstances of the case and the cause of death.
I hate to see them suffering from it. It is a tough disease
Quarantine measures and the Russian authorities’ position
Following the incident, dozens of people were placed under quarantine, while the head of Russia’s health watchdog was sent to the Irkutsk region to monitor developments linked to the case. The death raised public health concerns on social media, but Russian authorities said on Monday that the situation was under control.
Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, was quoted as saying that the employee had died from “pneumonia of unknown origin”. The US State Department said it was monitoring the case in co-ordination with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies.
Washington calls on Moscow to publish information
A department spokesperson called on Moscow to be transparent, saying that many details had yet to be confirmed, and urged the Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and publicly.
Trump said his country would help anyone facing a problem of this kind, saying: “We will always help.” He also described Russian President Vladimir Putin as someone he could work with, despite ongoing tensions between Washington and Moscow over the war in Ukraine.
