This is to "enable a correct assessment of potential risks to public health," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.
The background is that a laboratory worker at a plague research institute in Siberia died last week of “pneumonia of unknown origin.” Fears of pneumonic plague were quickly raised and, according to Russian independent media, several hospitals and people were quarantined.
According to WHO's initial risk assessment, the risk of the general public being infected with plague is considered low.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, US President Donald Trump said he had a scheduled phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about the matter “very soon.”
