The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Erica Schwartz, said the agency was prepared to monitor travel from Siberia and screen passengers if needed. Her comments followed the death of an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute from pneumonia of undetermined origin.
Schwartz said the CDC was coordinating with the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and other agencies. A public health station at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport can monitor and screen travellers arriving from the region.
The United States and Russia have had no direct air links since 2022. A US health department spokesman told the publication that about 200 people travel from Siberia to the United States each year. The department did not answer whether it planned separate screening at JFK.
Russia’s consumer safety watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, previously said there was no risk of an epidemic in Siberia. The cause of the pneumonia that killed the institute employee has not been established. US President Donald Trump also said he did not believe the death was caused by a biological weapon.