Moscow, Oct 5 (IANS) Reacting to reports about suspected outbreak of ‘plague’ in the Irkutsk region, Russian Presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Monday said that professional assessments and official statements should be heeded, not idle gossip and hearsay.
“The leading agency with authority in this area is Rospotrebnadzor,” the Kremlin spokesman emphasised. “And it is Rospotrebnadzor’s official statements that should be relied upon, without listening to various rumours and speculation,” Russia’s state-owned Tass news Agency quoted Peskov as saying during a regular media briefing in Moscow.
“Rospotrebnadzor is home to highly qualified professionals in this field. Let’s listen to their official statements,” the Kremlin spokesperson urged.
Earlier, Rospotrebnadzor reported that a series of anti-epidemic measures have been organised and implemented in the Irkutsk Region in response to a case involving an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East.
“Due to the patient’s professional activities, upon receipt of information, a comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures was immediately and fully organised and implemented in accordance with sanitary legislation, including identifying the widest possible circle of people who had been in contact with the patient, and providing inpatient medical observation with daily laboratory testing,” the statement mentioned.
According to Tass, the test revealed two cases of Covid-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection, but no other infectious agents were detected.
Rospotrebnadzor also reported that no emergencies were reported while working with pathogenic microorganisms at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East.
“Based on the work of the committee monitoring compliance with biological safety requirements at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, no emergency situations involving pathogenic microorganisms were identified. These findings were confirmed by an expert committee sent to the institute at the request of the head of Rospotrebnadzor,” the statement read.
A special set of measures was taken in response to the illness of an institute employee who was diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown aetiology.
–IANS
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