Unconfirmed reports of a second case of pneumonic plague in Russia

Russian authorities are keeping a tight lid on information about last week's suspicious death of a lab worker in Siberia

that has been surrounded by secrecy with claims that it could have been caused by pneumonic plague.

This amid unconfirmed reports of a possible second case.

Someone wearing protective coverall walking in a street in Shelekhov on October 2nd.

A news bulletin on Russian TV announces "pneumonia of unknown etiology was the diagnosis given to an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East.

A screen grab of Telegram post from the director of RUSAL's Irkutsk aluminium plant to his employees read that meetings of the sanitary-epidemiological commission have taken

place and all identified contacts are under medical observation.

Adding "At present, they show no signs of illness and laboratory test results are negative."

They said that a mandatory mask-wearing policy at the plant has been implemented as a precautionary measure.

Speaking in Geneva on October 7, the director-general of the WHO said that the Russian Federation said no plague case had recently been reported in the Irkutsk oblast,

but reports of a second case had surfaced.

Tedr0s Adhanom Ghebreyeus, director-general, World Health Organization said,

"However, WHO has requested further information on the laboratory tests conducted on the individual who died and the contacts, more detail on what prompted the public health

measures, and details about the health status of the contacts. We have also sought verification of media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause."

When asked by reporters whether he thinks the plague in Russia is a bio-weapon, Trump said he didn't think so.

"Well, we don't think so, and we're going to find out soon enough, but we don't think so. And if you listen to them, it's under control, but you know,

people have said that before about other things. So we hope it is. They're very sophisticated, very smart, and they're saying it's very much under control."