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Russia\u2019s health regulator said on Wednesday there were no risks of an epidemic breaking out in Siberia after a plague institute worker there died, as the World Health Organization pressed Moscow \u200bfor more information about her cause of death.<\/strong><\/p>\n Russian authorities say the 28-year-old laboratory worker died last Friday from pneumonia of an as-yet unestablished origin, in a case that has prompted international concern, including \u200cfrom US President Donald Trump. Around 200 people were initially placed in quarantine.<\/p>\n Asked on Wednesday whether the death was caused by a bioweapon, Trump told reporters: \u201cWell, we don\u2019t think so. We\u2019re going to find out soon enough, but we don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n He said Russia was not saying much about the situation but \u201cthey do say they have it very much under control,\u201d adding he had set up a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re sharing (information) a little bit with our people. We expect them to share it a lot \u200bwith our people,\u201d said Trump, speaking in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n Global health officials \u2013 as well as the world\u2019s media \u2013 have been particularly alert to pneumonia cases of undetermined cause since the COVID-19 pandemic, which \u200bbegan with a cluster of fast-spreading fatal respiratory illness in China.<\/p>\n However, the cause of individual pneumonia cases can often not be determined.<\/p>\n US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention \u2060Director Erica Schwartz said at an event the agency was prepared to monitor and screen travelers although the risk to the US was extremely low.<\/p>\n The WHO initially said it estimated the risk of the Russia case to \u200bthe public as low, based on what had been made known, but told a press conference on Wednesday it could not make a fuller risk assessment due to insufficient information from the Russian authorities.<\/p>\n Rospotrebnadzor, Russia\u2019s health watchdog, said \u200bon Wednesday it was winding down precautionary measures it had put in place after concluding there was no risk of an epidemic and that it had shared its latest information with the WHO.<\/p>\n No cases of plague had been detected among anyone who had come into contact with the deceased worker, Darya Shipilova, it said, and 90% of those placed in quarantine had been released after nearly 5,000 lab tests had failed to detect any dangerous pathogens.<\/p>\n It said Shipilova had been vaccinated and had therefore been \u201cimmune to \u200bthe dangerous infections with which she worked\u201d. It did not say, however, what had caused the pneumonia which killed her or how she fell ill.<\/p>\n WHO CALLS FOR MORE INFORMATION<\/strong><\/p>\n Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO in \u200bGeneva, said on Wednesday his organisation needed more information from Russia to understand what had happened.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would like more information to understand which laboratory tests were conducted, which pathogens were evaluated, and if this individual didn\u2019t die from plague, then how \u200cdid she die?\u201d \u2060Maria Van Kerkhove, director of the WHO\u2019s department of epidemic and pandemic management, told a virtual press conference.<\/p>\n Tedros said the WHO had offered assistance to Russia and also repeated a request for Russia to verify \u201cmedia reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause\u201d.<\/p>\n KREMLIN CRITICISES \u2018FALSE INFORMATION\u2019 IN MEDIA<\/strong><\/p>\n The Kremlin said Russia had properly informed the WHO about the incident in line with established procedures.<\/p>\n When asked about the WHO\u2019s request to respond to reports about a second person in Siberia allegedly falling ill, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged caution when it came to using media reports as a reference for what was happening.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is a great deal of media coverage, and the vast majority \u200bof what the media are reporting about this situation \u200bis false information,\u201d said Peskov.<\/p>\n He advised the media and \u2060others to rely on information provided by the health regulator. It did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Wednesday about the WHO\u2019s questions.<\/p>\n EXACT CAUSE OF DEATH REMAINS UNKNOWN<\/strong><\/p>\n Some Western media outlets have reported \u2014 citing unnamed \u201cRussian media\u201d \u2014 that a second person in Siberia had died, saying they had died of plague.<\/p>\n Reuters was unable \u200bto find any such stories in Russian media or any evidence that a second person in Siberia had died although some bloggers on social media were \u200bmaking \u2014 without evidence \u2014 such assertions.<\/p>\n After the \u2060press conference, the WHO sent Reuters a link to a story about a potential second case by the Russian media organization starhit.ru, a celebrity gossip outlet, and a follow-up from British newspaper the Daily Mail.<\/p>\n Tedros said it was important to be transparent based on the lessons from COVID, adding, \u201cWe don\u2019t have any mandate actually to see whether this media is credible or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Russia has not formally responded to the reports about a second person dying, Tedros said, adding that he \u2060had heard only \u200binformally that Russia had denied those reports.<\/p>\n Tedros\u2019 call for more information echoed that of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has \u200balso said Moscow needs to share more information about the incident.<\/p>\n Pneumonia, a lung infection, can have a variety of causes including plague as well as other bacterial infections or viral respiratory diseases, such as flu or COVID-19.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n