No Trump-Putin phone call is on the calendar yet, the Kremlin says. Asked Thursday whether a call had been agreed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told TASS: "Not yet. We'll let you know." He said it was unclear when it would happen.

That cuts against what Trump has said all week. On Tuesday he told reporters, "I have a call scheduled," and said it would be "very soon," Fox News reported. TASS said Trump stated Wednesday, Putin's birthday, that the call had been arranged. The two have spoken five times this year, most recently Sept. 8, according to TASS.

The call is expected to touch on a health scare in Siberia. A 28-year-old woman who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute died last week of what Russia calls pneumonia of unknown cause. Russia has not said she had plague.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday the agency has asked Russia about media reports of a second worker with pneumonia, Al Jazeera reported. Peskov said "the vast majority" of media reports were "false information." WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove said, "We don't understand how she was infected."

Russia's health agency says no infections have been found among staff.

Asked if the illness could be from a bioweapon, Trump said, "We do not think so." CDC Director Erica Schwartz called the U.S. risk "extremely low." She said the CDC can screen travelers from the region at New York's JFK airport. Direct U.S.-Russia flights have been suspended since 2022.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow issued a health alert and told Americans in the area to avoid affected medical facilities, Fox News reported.

Pneumonic plague is a bacterial lung infection that spreads through close contact. It can be treated with antibiotics if caught early.

What we know: The Kremlin says no call date is set, and the WHO wants answers on a second worker.
What we don't: What killed the lab worker, and when Trump and Putin will talk.