Irkutsk (GNP): All preventive quarantine measures have been completed in Russia’s Irkutsk region, following the death of an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East from pneumonia of unknown origin.
Regional governor Igor Kobzev announced the update on Thursday. The 28-year-old laboratory worker died in the city of Shelekhov on October 2, which prompted the precautionary steps now being closed out.
Kobzev said she had been vaccinated and was immune to the dangerous infections she handled at work. He added that no emergencies involving pathogenic microorganisms were detected at the institute, which addresses the first question raised by the death of a researcher at an anti-plague facility.
The next step was checking those who had been near her. Kobzev said medical monitoring of all her contacts has been completed. Nearly 5,000 laboratory tests found no dangerous pathogenic microorganisms.
Those results explain why the governor now describes the situation as stable. He said the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the region remains calm.
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Officials have also moved to stop the spread of rumours. Earlier, Russia’s Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare dismissed reports of a second case as untrue.
Taken together, the completed monitoring, the negative test results and the denial of a second case mark the end of the precautionary phase in the region. The cause of the worker’s pneumonia, however, is still described as unknown.
Regional governor Igor Kobzev said the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region remains calm.
