U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States does not believe the suspected plague case in Russia’s Irkutsk region is a biological weapon. "We don’t think it’s a bioweapon, but we’ll find out," Trump told reporters at the White House.
Asked whether he was getting the same feeling from Russia as he did from China at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Trump said: "China didn’t say much and Russia’s not saying much either, but they do say they have it very much under control."
Death at plague research institute

Concern was triggered by the death of an employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East who had been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown origin. Russian authorities introduced quarantine and medical observation measures for contacts, while Rospotrebnadzor said there had been no emergency at the institute.
The Kremlin said most media reports on the situation did not reflect reality and urged the public to rely on Rospotrebnadzor’s official statements. The World Health Organization has assessed the public health risk as low based on the information available.