Canada is monitoring reports from Irkutsk and sees no risk to the country

On 5 October, Marjorie Michel, Canada’s minister of health, said Canada was closely following reports of a Siberian anti-plague institute employee’s death. Sarah Ritchie of The Canadian Press, a Canadian news agency, reported her comments.

Michel said the federal government was working with the World Health Organization and other countries, and that Canada faced no risk. Asked about Russian transparency, she pointed to United States contacts with Russia and Canadian contacts with the United States.

This is the minister’s assessment on 5 October, reported by a journalist, not a laboratory finding. No separate government transcript was located in this check.

The article was published at 18:37:51 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on 5 October and updated at 21:07:50 UTC: 02:37:51 and 05:07:50 on 6 October in Irkutsk. The exact time of the minister’s remarks is unestablished. The source was added to this research on 8 October.